


Crossing Fate

by Vaccineman



Category: Chainsaw Man (Manga), Hellsing, One Piece, 呪術廻戦 | Jujutsu Kaisen (Manga)
Genre: Fights
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-09
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:40:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 26,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25810735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vaccineman/pseuds/Vaccineman
Summary: This is where I’m going to post fight scenes I’ve written for practice or fun that don’t have a story to be attached to. I might do cross over fights in the future and will likely do more fandoms than I’ve already listed. Enjoy.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 33





	1. Boa Hancock vs Donquixote Doflamingo

Boa Hancock vs Donquixote Doflamingo

Hancock quickly forgot the events that had led up to this confrontation. She was sure that some form of conversation between her and Donquixote at the Warlord meeting had caused such hostility between them, but it was no longer important. What was important was the arrogant fool calling her to attack with his arms spread out, daring her to strike him, standing a top a Marineford rooftop in the dead of night.

Her snake weapon Salome bent into her bow form as Hancock formed three Slave Arrow on her, the snake aiding her ability to focus and launch the energy. She loosed the arrows and watched as they hummed towards her fellow Warlord. Even through his ever-present glasses, even through the eternal mask of his grin, she saw how he leered at her and it spelled his downfall. No one who felt anything lustful for her could withstand a direct hit from her devil fruit abilities, least of all such a hedonist as Doflamingo.

She was not surprised though when he was dragged into the sky like a fish on the hook with a declaration of “Sky’s Path!”. He languidly revolved before staying still, hovering in the clouds.

“Yehhehahahaha! I’m surprised ‘Pirate Empress! I would have thought you the type to want to settle disputes with words.”

“You thought wrong ‘Heavenly Demon’,” she replied ‘I have no interest in whatever games you have to play. You’ve angered the Worlds Most Beautiful Woman and you’ll pay with your life.”

“How headstrong! I don’t think the Marines will take you trying to murder one of their Warlords well.”

“I don’t care. I could kill every last one of their Warlords and they wouldn’t stop me. Why? Because I am beautiful!”

She loosed another volley of Slave Arrows off of Salome’s back, only for Doflamingo to twist with minimal movement to fit between the gaps before responding by firing off a dozen String Bullets in return. She lifted her finger in response crying out “Pistol Kiss” before petrifying the nearest bullet. She briefly worked out the best path using Observation Haki before bending her finger under her thumb. A perfectly manicured nail snapped back out, flicking the now stone bullet back towards the rest of the barrage. It ricocheted perfectly off of each white bundle of razor thread, knocking each away and into each other so that none came close to the Empress.

This caused Donflamingo to frown for an instant, which returned for a full second when a Slave Arrow then flew over his head, freezing the strings connecting him to the clouds. He hastily severed them before the petrification reached him, choosing to drop back down to the rooftop, considering that since the strings were produced from his body, they too were susceptible to Hancock’s ability. He wasted no time before lunging at her with a cry of ‘Pentomatic Strings!’. Between each of his fingers was a razor string the colour of an oil slick, black with rainbow hues.

Hancock dodged between his deceptively feral attacks, Salome wrapping around her waist, before snapping out a kick. Almost immediately Doflamingo was put on the defensive by her Perfume Style martial arts. Every straight kick was feinted by Salome’s tail strikes, every blind spot and opening covered by the snake. He went for a low only to have to snap back to avoid a petrifying knee and practically bounded backwards away from her retaliation. He realised quickly that he would find no openings in her barrage and activated his safety net, a string wrapped around his waist that pulled him far away from the gorgeous combatant. He put up a Spider Web only for it to immediately be shattered by a Salome-launched Slave Arrow. His smirk remained as he spread his arms again, causing Hancock to scrutinise him somewhat before her Observation screamed for her to move.

She leaped onto another rooftop as her previous destination turned alabaster before erupting with haki tipped String Spears. Doflamingo leapt back and let his strings pull him as he continued using his awakening, the nearby city block turning to string around them. Hancock broke into a sprint chasing the demon as he flew back, skimming off of rooftops before they transformed, flipping over lashing tentacles before her and freezing a group of outbreaks in front of her with Slave Arrows so she could leap off them. Her instincts told her that roof hopping was too risky with his awakening, so she gracefully dropped to the floor before leaping once again to a wall. 

She rode atop Salome as her snake slithered along the wall faster than she could run, aiming a shot at the grinning madman while dodging patches of awakened string. Just one hit was all she needed, but it had been a difficult prospect thus far. Her aiming was interrupted as Salome jumped from the wall towards Doflamingo, who was almost lounging as he was drug backwards. This was her chance, he couldn’t dodge from this close...

“Got you! Parasite!”

Hancock and Salome froze in midair as Doflamingo grinned at them. The pair had been caught in his manipulative strings.  
“Don’t be so cocky!’ roared Hancock as she almost shrugged off the possession. The look of shock on her rival Warlord was priceless, even in spite of her guilt as she leapt off of Salome before the snake was slammed into a far away wall by the strings. Doflamingo raised his hands in a desperate attempt to block but it was too little too late.

‘Perfume Femur!’ cried Hancock as her outstretched iron black leg buried itself the demon’s stomach like a shot from a cannon, blowing a concentric hole in his gut before he was even petrified. The statue that had been Doflamingo flew far backwards before disintegrating against a Marine watchtower.

Hancock kicked off of the blocks sides until the cleared the top of a high, wide skyscraper. She flared her observation looking for Salome to check she was alright, and allowed herself an unheard sigh of relief when she sensed the snake was unconscious but alive. She turned towards the building Salome was imbedded in while debating with herself if she should make an excuse to present to the Marines before swiftly deciding against it. This only proves her power and shows that she isn’t to be messed wi-“Overheat!!!!”.

Her back exploded into searing, agonising pain as she stumbled forward, the back of her cape severed and her dress bursting into flames before she quickly patted it out. She caught her balance before looking at her back with horror. Not even for the flared, dripping whipmark that appeared on her back, but for the Hoof of the Celestial Dragon the flames had revealed, her greatest shame. Her face could not mask her disgust and upset.  
“Yehehahahaha! Would you believe the luck in a story Hancock? A former Celestial Noble and a former slave, both duelling after a workplace dispute. It’s poetic!” laughed Doflamingo as he floated up unscathed from below the skyscraper, flanked by two identical copies of himself. He quickly snapped his fingers before the copy on the left unraveled itself and stretched into the sky before descending on and around the skyscraper, trapping the two warlords in a cage of razor string. 

“I’m even more impressed. The idea that someone as lowly as a slave like you could lie into a position like this is admirable. But once a slave always a slave and it’s time you bowed to your master. I might even let you live.” 

Hancock stood back up with her front turned to Doflamingo. She’d been much too foolish, it would never have been that easy and now she’d played into his trap. She’d been fighting a mere copy the entire time. He likely wanted to fight here most of all to begin with! She resented the weakness she’d already showed and vowed to reveal no more. But what shock! She hadn’t at all considered that he was a member of that Donquixote clan, but his despicable entitlement had made it all too clear. She felt even worse than when he had struck her moments ago. 

“I am no mere slave you cast-out monster! I will never bow to any man, let alone another of you inbred fools!”

‘Inbred? Such insolence from an up-jumped mortal with no sense of self preservation. I will tear down this world formed by my race and burn it to cinders! Compared to that task, you truly are nothing!’

Doflamingo landed upon the skyscraper briefly before letting out a roar of Conquerors Haki. His was a wave of pure black hatred restrained with hundreds of strings, like hellfire in a glass bottle. She sturdied her stance before releasing her own, defiance and disdain spiralling into sheer force. Their wills clashed as the air crackled with lightning and bellowed from the force. Everyone in that quarter of Marineford, soldier and citizen alike passed out, but the two warriors atop the skyscraper stood yet, unbowed and unbroken. 

Doflamingo leaped backwards once more, standing on an outstretched platform of white string, weaving a Spider Web shield in his left hand while forging his ultimate God Thread with his right. His remaining Black Knight came speeding towards Hancock, to his gleeful surprise putting her on the defensive, working in slight cuts on her crossed wrists, her sides, her shins with its glimmering Pentocromatic threads. She ducked under a left claw only for its momentum to be transferred into a roundhouse, the Fretsaw adorning the back of its leg cutting her forearm to the bone.

Hancock was in deep trouble, even she had to admit that to herself. She was locked in, unable to escape the skyscraper for fear of being sliced by the surrounding cage of thread. She was trapped on the defensive, her black and white dress soon being soaked red in blood from the numerous wounds she was taking from his clone while she considered the true master standing far away behind his string aegis, preparing what must be his ultimate attack. If she couldn’t make a move quickly, she’d be finished, and poorly at that. She had to come up with a plan.

Her Observation outranked his, but his Armament surpassed hers. His defence might be better, but her attacks could break through it as though it wasn’t there. But the problem was hitting him at all, she hadn’t truly struck him once since the fight began. His esoteric tactics had completely outmanoeuvred her, she would have to admit he was smarter than her. But he couldn’t face her in direct combat, she’s just have to rid him of his tricks and victory would be hers. She opened up her Observation, straining it to sense some break in his strategy and-there! 

There was a third Black Knight inside the building they were fighting on! He must have planned to use it to surprise her so that she couldn’t dodge his final attack. A cowardly tactic she deemed, and one not good enough. She hopped up, withstanding a deep cut on her thigh from the Black Knight as she lifted her knee before landing, smashing her foot through the roof. She fell two stories down before gracefully landing on the second floor in a office. The hidden Black Knight gaped at her, freezing in its forging of sixteen more black tipped tendrils. It hastily threw its hands to cover its chest expecting some sort of kick and was denied when Hancock instead slapped it with such force that its head flew off and turned to stone in mid-air, crashing through a window. It’s remaining body collapsed into a useless pile of string as it’s brother smashed down through the same hole Hancock had made. 

It pounced at her, obsidian thread at the ready, only for her to bend so that it went over her chin like she was limboing under. Without looking up she raised her finger at it, mocking it by looking so far down at it she ended up looking up. Before it could turn around her hands snapped into the position of a heart as magenta waves spread from them turning the grinning clone into stone. 

She leapfrogged off of the statue, it shattering as she did so before landing once again on the top of the skyscraper. Doflamingo stood in a wide stance before her, his sixteen obsidian tipped spears twisting and twitching behind his Spider Thread shield. 

“You’ve allowed yourself to become weak Boa!” declared Doflamingo now unable to hide his inner rage “You shun and hide from your past and let it haunt you! You will never be truly strong unless you embrace your pain like me! The pain that forged me into the God I am today, the pain I will share with the world that caused it, that my people created! A weakling like you should have run slave, from a destroyer like me!”

“A destroyer? Fufufufufufuuu!” laughed Hancock. “All I see is a petulant, spoiled brat lashing out because his toys were taken away! No amount of pain could create a creature as vile as you! You move me none, you only wish to justify this glorified tantrum you take out on the world. You know nothing of what true strength and weakness is. My past is in the past and I won’t let myself be defined by it, by no one! Beauty is strength, and I am the most beautiful in the world!”

By stature and standing the God looked down on her, but she looked down on him from a much higher place.

She snapped off a final Slave Arrow, freezing his shield which was shattered by the sixteen Holy Bullets that darted towards her. She ran headlong towards them, leaping up so she could crush Doflamingo once and for all. She built up her Supreme Conquerors Haki within her...

‘God Thread!!!”

And released it as her own psychic spear that targeted Doflamingo’s mind. It brought forth all his insecurity, all his hatred and all his self perceived faults. It worked. His concentration shattered as his spears went off course. Hancock angled her body just so before bracing herself. Spears slid through her shoulder, her thigh and her side but missing any vital organs. They turned to stone and disintegrated as she landed in front of Doflamingo.

There were no more words to be shared between them. Before he could physically react, Hancock put her pointer finger to his head in a mock gun, her thumb raised high, point blank. He futilely spread Armament up his neck but no quickly enough. 

‘Pistol Kiss.’ 

Her thumb pushed down as a rose coloured bullet fired from her finger piercing Doflamingo’s head, splitting his glasses before exiting the other side and landing in the Bird Cage, him and his construct both petrified forever. Hancock considered his face briefly. His features were kind, with the same angled eyes that were common in the Donquixote family. He must have been ashamed of his features she realised.

Hancock was aware that she was one of the few people who had ever seen his full face. She was also the last. 

She jumped before flipping end over end, her ankle crashing down onto his head like a guillotine. His body shattered entirely so that there was nothing left except his limbs, which she stamped in a flurry to powder. Donflamingo was dead.

She took his feather boa that had fallen from his shoulders, finding it an appropriate trophy that would hide the markings of her back before walking back to the meeting, with a slight limp and a tremendous victory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Doflamingo has been stated to be attracted to Viola, who’s similar to Hancock, so I think it’s not a stretch to say he’d be affected by her powers


	2. Gojo vs Makima

The train slid to a halt with a resounding screech that made Gojo’s shoulders relax somewhat. Normally he’d just teleport back to his apartment after finishing an exorcism, but Yaga had ruled after he was released from Shibuya that there should be as little public sorcery as possible, in order to keep what little concealment they had. He breathed out, people still looked at him funny, but he could always use his old excuse that he was cosplaying if anyone asked about the blindfold. Pretending was such a pain Gojo had half a mind to ignore the old man, but he chose to for the sake of his students. 

In the blink of an eye, everyone but Gojo disappeared from the station. He couldn’t sense anyone inside the train too. He sighed and turned to see the woman responsible. A fairly beautiful red haired women with a braid, wearing a smart suit with no jacket. Her eyes were what drew his attention most, a light red with golden concentric rings for pupils. She smiled at him and he smirked back, although he couldn’t place the look on her face. 

“Hello, my name is Makima.” She started, “I’ve been made aware of your existence recently and I believe you would be vital to my plans going forward. I’d like you to come with me please”.

Gojo kept smirking, but internally he was getting ready to fight. There was something about this Makima that wasn’t right, in fact he didn’t think she was human. He’d met curses identical to humans before, but she felt different. He couldn’t sense any cursed energy off her, but she wasn’t absent like Toji. Very strange.

“Could buy me dinner first at least Miss Makima.” he called back. “‘Fraid I’m gonna have to decline, I can tell you aren’t human.” 

“Your so called Six Eyes are perceptive then Gojo Satoru. I’m afraid I can’t accept that. Come with me” she commanded. 

Gojo noticed Infinity straining somewhat. Curious, she likely had some sort of controlling technique to her voice. Nothing he couldn’t handle. “Sorry, already said no. Pushy women are not my thing.” He took his hands out of his pockets.

Makima reacted as soon as he did by raising her hand in a gun sign before he could move his hands, her smile not changing at all. Pure force launched out like an invisible hammer blow and launched Gojo backwards into the subway wall, smashing deep into the concrete.   
His back was suspended before the wall for a second before he landed, sitting unharmed in the crater, his Infinity having stopped it from getting close to reaching him. That was confusing. Normally Infinity would just negate the force all together, not let him be blown back. 

“Wowww!” He exclaimed, feigning being impressed, “That was kinda cool. Though I’m not a fan of being used to break walls.” Gojo dropped back onto his feet and whistled. Makima’s gaze narrowed and hardened and Gojo felt another force on Infinity. This one was more esoteric, likely would be targeting his internal organs rather than just smash him. He began walking towards Makima, still whistling. Her finger pointed at him again but now he’d had enough playing along, barely sliding an inch before taking to the air.

He levitated for a second before shooting straight at her, twisting to avoid her stare with minimal movement, before appearing in her face. Before she could even blink, his hand swept forward and snatched her head clean off, landing behind her corpse. 

This was the 31st time Makima died. 

Gojo inspected his hand for a second and blinked behind his blindfold: her head was gone. He turned quickly and took in what he saw in the split second he had using his Six Eyes. She was standing where he’d left her, unharmed but turned around to face him. A chain extended from her lower torso, spearing a man in prison garbs through the stomach. The man was stuck in place and stared at Gojo before mumbling “Satoru Gojo”. All vital signs Gojo could sense from the man vanished and he slumped, still suspended. 

All of a sudden, a much greater force than anything Gojo had felt before bore down on him from directly above like the Fist of God. The blow smashed him down through the floor, still in defiance of how Infinity was meant to work and left him lying unharmed but perturbed on the floor. This was very strange, for some reason her ability could affect him even through Infinity to a certain extent. What kind of energy was she using? Gojo dismissed her claims and rose back onto his feet effortlessly. He sighed loudly and reached for his head before the same overhead force struck him back down to one knee, throwing his hand off. 

Gojo sensed Makima’s smile grow somewhat and his pride brought out real power. As he rose back to his feet the force came down a third time. His hand reached out to the sky and dissipated it entirely, effortlessly. 

Before Makima could attack again, the Worlds Strongest Sorcerer simply declared ‘Red’. His energy flow Reversed into a black, twisting orb of convergence and divergence that hovered over his index and middle fingers. He simply pointed his hand up and released. The explosive vacuum burst through the floor to strike Makima instantly, sending her crashing through the subway ceiling until she broke through the surface, rocketing through the side of a nearby skyscraper before her broken body finally stopped in a office. 

This was the 32nd time Makima had died. 

Gojo floated through the hole he’d made up to the street, where countless bystanders were panicking at the explosion that had just happened. He scratched his head, lamenting another chewing out he was sure he’d get from Yaga for being too publicly destructive so soon. Oh. Makima was still going huh? 

“Dear, I don’t really like persistent women either.” 

——— 

While Makima was lying in a pile of broken bones and burst intestines, her brain leaking out of her skull onto the office floor, she decided Gojo would require a bit more strategy to obtain than she’d first expected. He was the Worlds Strongest, but she’d assumed that she would be able to catch him off guard, it worked most of the time. Regardless, she was sure she’d be able to take him still. 

The main problem was his Infinity, thus far no matter what she’d done to him, he’d been untouched by it. Makima had hoped that her own abilities would be able to push past its aegis, but no such luck, not even her Control had made it through. As Makima stood back up, none the worse for wear thanks to the Prime Minister’s contract shunting her injuries onto some careless school teacher, she considered ways of breaking through it. 

Ah, Angel could do it, his weapons could absorb energy just like he could, they’d be able to make a hole in Infinity if they came into contact with his energy enough. Punishment would help with that. Aki’s Future contract would help too, it’d be useful for her to know what Gojo would do. She’d placed doubt in the workings of Infinity, but she wouldn’t be able to order him otherwise, not until she’d defeated him in full. 

Chains spread out from her stomach and hung in the air. Seven bodies hung on them like clothes on a washing line. Yutaro Kurose, Michiko Tendo, the Angel Devil and Kusakabe on the left, Nomo, Hayakawa Aki and Akane Sawatari on the right. 

She’d defeat Infinity, then subdue him. After that, she’d be free to enact her plan. The hole in her head closed as the last strip of her brain leaked out, before it curled into a halo suspended above her head. Makima smiled. 

——— 

Gojo finished evacuating everyone, the city was now empty for the next few blocks. He pushed his fingers together and threw a curtain over the area, so that no one other than him and Makima would be inside. He smiled, with everyone gone he really could cut loose. Makima had survived two attack from him that should have been fatal to almost anyone else and looked like nothing had happened to her. What a rare opportunity for him.

Gojo levitated up to look into the building Makima had landed in. She’d been in there longer than he’d expected, but he couldn’t sense anything thing else around him, even with the Six Eyes, so she was probably still in there. He reached the hole he’d blown her into and hung there languidly, peering inside. Hmmmm, empty. Where had she gone? A ring of intestines appeared over Gojo’s head, before a shape dropped from it faster than even he could react, with a distant cry of ‘Kon!’ to accompany it.

Gojo saw black for a second before becoming aware of fur and claws and dozens of ringed eyes staring at him. He felt a great maw full of mismatched sharp teeth bearing down on Infinity. Without much resistance he flipped them over so that he was atop the Fox creature. His hand reached out to the top of its mouth and forced it closed, pushing its head towards the ground with minimal effort, sending a gout of body fluids and bone fragments spewing out once it made contact. It weakly lashed out with a large, clawed paw only for it to be ignored entirely by Infinity. Gojo put his hands in his pockets as his leg came up and crashed back down, pulverising the Fox’s skull entirely with his heel. 

Faster than thought, Gojo was set upon by a thunder storm of blades that fell on Infinity. Gojo peered with mild bewilderment at the creature that had set upon him now: a mass of interconnected torso’s that rose out of the road, each one muscular but zombified, with a skeletal face. Each one was wielding a weapon, from hatchets to machete’s to katana’s to what looked like a kitchen knife. Gojo smirked at such an odd sight before the Punishment Devil began in earnest. Each torso attacked in individual patterns, but they all linked up perfectly, each one covering for the others recoveries and openings until it was a ceaseless ringing maelstrom of blades. A perfect stream of violence. 

Gojo was impressed, he really couldn’t see an easy way through this. Punishment curved to the side to catch him if he tried to escape by dodging, and it moved fast enough to catch him even as he was back-pedalling now. He might be able to escape upwards but he would likely have to deal with another devil attacking him from above if he did. Lesser sorcerers would consider him stuck but he had ways out. He was using this time to try and figure Makima’s energy out, how was she affecting Infinity the way she was....oh. 

Gojo felt a drain on Infinity that he’d rarely felt at all in his life. Something was drawing energy out of the technique. Gojo could sense...the weapons! All the weapons Punishment was wielding were draining his cursed energy. Before Gojo could stop it, one torso slammed an axe into Infinity’s field and broke through, Gojo barely moving his head to avoid it. Before he could seal the hole, he finally saw Makima.

‘Stop using Infinity.’

Gojo felt ill as his body surrendered all control to Makima for a brief second and Infinity disappeared. He felt compelled not to turn it back on, and he knew that no amount of will would break this compulsion. He saw her, floating too far away for him to reach. There were seven bodies next to her suspended on her chains, scarred men and women in black suits, one with dyed hair, another with a top knot, one with slicked back hair. A ring of pinkish grey matter floated over her head. Between her halo and the chained bodies appearing as wings, she looked like a fallen angel. Gojo would never admit it or let it show, but deep down, he began to feel fear for the first time in eleven years. 

He couldn’t let it distract him though. His foot shot out and kicked off the top of one of Punishment’s heads, before he kicked off the next one. It was so perfectly in sync it couldn’t move to attacking over its heads fast enough and he cleared behind it. He landed on the ground behind it, and turned while preparing another Red. As his fingers came together, the man with the slicked back hair and glasses appeared next to him, the chain having extended all the way to next to Gojo. Kusakabe’s body began bleeding rapidly, forming a circle around him that quickly turned inwards, forming a complex, heretical symbol. His hand covered his mouth as he blew through a hole in it, a great mist spewing from his mouth. 

Gojo barely got his arm up to block as he kicked off the ground to dodge as the mist touched it. Instantly, Gojo felt his arm be petrified into stone, painless as even his nerves ceased function. He had to escape, this was a really bad situation. He flew upwards as quickly as he could, but barely avoided flinching as he saw another portal made of intestines forming next to him. Faster than he could react, a massive serpentine creature with a single black eye and a cruel maw formed of interlocking human hands shot out. Gojo tried to mitigate the hit, but the Snake Devil’s mouth closed around his foot and tore off his leg with brutal alacrity. Gojo closed his eyes for a brief second in pain, half his shin including his foot was just gone and dark arterial blood spewed from the stump. 

He landed on one knee as the Snake Devil, Kusakabe and the Punishment Devil all closed in on him, still connected to Makima’s chains. He’d landed in the perfect place for them to attack him all at once, he wasn’t going to be able to defend against this without Infinity. He smirked as he saw Makima nearby to him, her emotionless eyes gazing upon him mercilessly. Too nearby. His working hand reached up and pulled down his blindfold, before his middle and index fingers crossed as his latter two pulled in. His unnaturally celestial blue eyes shone as his face showed victory. 

“Immeasurable Void!”

Makima quickly disappeared, her face showing a devastating hint of worry as her body dissolved into a swarm of insects. But it was too late to stop his technique. Gojo’s Domain stretched and sealed Kusakabe, Snake and Punishment in as a breathtaking display. They all stood at the centre of the universe, as clusters of stars and nebulas painted all-black canvas of space. 

All three froze entirely, their faces deeply confused as all the knowledge in the universe poured into their brains without mercy, their minds overrun and shattered by endless tidal waves of information. Gojo stood up on his one leg before preparing the Reverse technique with his left. He grew his leg back entirely, although his lower pant leg was still gone, which annoyed him and he reversed the petrification on his arm. He considered for a moment as his prisoner’s brains were erased. 

Makima had been horrified by him using this technique, despite the fact that she’d easily recovered from everything else he’d hit her with thus far. Immeasurable Void didn’t kill with force, it destroyed an opponents consciousness by giving them omniscience without any protection from its effects, until they would break down entirely. It was likely even she couldn’t survive that kind of attack. Gojo felt his fear die down, he wasn’t so weak that he couldn’t do more than one Domain Expansion in one day, but he’d have to catch her up close next time. Easier said than done he was sure. He’d heard rumours of Ryomen Sukuna having such a mastery that he could project his Domain for hundreds of metres by casting it on the air itself. Gojo had always wanted to try it, although with his Domains inherently destructive nature he’d never had the chance, and even he might not be able to use it. He’d have to get close to her, he decided. Although Hollow Purple might be worth a try, it’s matter erasure might trump whatever regeneration she could manage. 

Regardless, there was safety in alacrity, and Gojo didn’t want to waste time waiting for her summons to pass on by Immeasurable Voids effects. He pointed to a centre between all three summons, their faces having gone slack and broken and spoke ‘Azure Glow’. A single point appeared in the centre before imploding into a vortex. Their bodies tore and warped as they were all sucked into an impossibly small hole, eventually being pulverised entirely beyond any hope of recovery. Gojo deactivated his Domain, the three’s liquefied bodies painting the floor as he did. Makima was standing there, none the worse for wear, all emotion having drained from her face as she took on the same smile as always. A single chain was still connected to her stomach, along it was a young man with a top knot, a horned, tree like devil floating behind him. 

Makima wordlessly reached out her finger and pointed directly at Gojo, who projected all the cursed energy he could bring to bear. The force was stronger than anything she’d used before and Gojo felt his bones straining against it through the makeshift barrier he’d formed. His nose broke and began bleeding rapidly. It was like God themself was trying to use his breath to knock him down, almost irresistible. He forced his arms higher and higher to aim his attack, but he risked his fingers breaking so that he couldn’t use it. Wait, wait..... repulsion and attraction, convergence and divergence, infinity and nothingness combine into imaginary mass. Visualise the hundreds of tons of mass in range, including Makima and her servant. Perfect. Gojo snapped his fingers. 

‘Hollow Technique: Purple.’

A indigo light appeared as all the mass that composed the city block in front of him, all that composed Makima and her summon doubled....and then was subtracted to nothing. A massive trench appeared in front of him where all the mass disappeared. Not disintegrated, it literally did not exist anymore. Makima was gone. 

Gojo turned back, feeling exhausted for the first time in eleven years. What a struggle. His face fell as he considered all the destruction he’d caused. All the people he’d moved won’t have homes anymore, it’ll be such a pain for him and the rest of the Shamans to fix. 

At once, the curtain he’d thrown up shattered. Gojo’s Six Eyes widened. That had never happened before, not once in his life. Within a second he saw her standing miles and miles away on top of the highest skyscraper. Her wings were gone but her halo remained, and she’d redressed herself since he’d erased her body into a simple black dress. Four chains reached out from her stomach, into a enormous ring of intestines, the biggest one she’d used yet. Gojo heard a unbearable sound, like every weapon in the world was being used on everyone imaginable all at once, a ceaseless banging growing and growing until it drowned out everyone else. Then it stopped.

A trio of colossal ammunition belts fell from the portal like spilled intestines. The Gun Devil had been summoned. 

A vaguely skeletal figure fell from the portal, it’s arms made up of building sized rifles, it’s lower half composed of three tail like bullet belts. It’s ribcage was bloated with screaming human faces crying out for a mercy that would never come. It’s visage was a skull like jaw totally overtaken by a semi automatic pistol barrel that consumed its head. It’s mouth opened and a roar sounding of endless hammers being pulled back, slides being adjusted, clips being inserted sounded. 

It spread its arms and a typhoon of bullets was let forth. Gojo saw with his Six Eyes everyone he’d evacuated and everyone for hundreds and hundreds of meters be perforated. It’s accuracy was peerless, each person executed with a single devastating shot to the heart. Those that weren’t shot were smashed by falling rubble from the buildings it turned to splinters with its barrage.

Gojo was horrified at his own stupidity to think this a fun fight and not a matter of utmost importance. Millions were dying under his watch and he had little ability to defend himself. Gojo had no choice but to admit he was truly terrified for the first time. This was the worst monster he’d ever met in his life and he wouldn’t be able to beat it. But his pride forced him to try. Gojo moved faster than he ever had before to get close to it, but to no avail, even he could not dodge the attack of the single greatest killer of humanity in millennia. 

One through the left hand, two through the left thigh and another through the right shin. Four in the stomach, one in the liver and one in the left lung. One in the heart, one more had destroyed his left eye and nestled in the back of his brain. Gojo fell and hit the ground as little more than a broken dying body filled with lead, less than seconds left to live. Makima watched from far away and allowed herself to chuckle at her victory. Gojo was finished.

No. 

Not since his showdown with Toji had Gojo felt this way. It was like he was in Immeasurable Void, but he rode the wave of information with ease. Everything he needed to know came to him. Realisation of how to win came to him on the brink of death. Enlightenment. The Gojo of right now was a different beast entirely than the one of that morning. 

Euphoria overtook Gojo as despite the holes in his body, even in his brain he grinned, blood covering his face. Reverse energy flowed through him automatically. No conscious thought activated it, it was always active now and it always would be. Just like Infinity, a second aegis to protect himself. 

He rose to his feet instantaneously, his jacket had come off in the storm but it reappeared now on his shoulders, it’s sleeves blowing in helixes in the torrential winds behind him like a cape. His eyes took on the same manic joy as he was possessed the same way he was when he was seventeen. His body was painted in black shadows from all his blood, his alabaster hair sticking up due to the wind. Any grief he felt for his injuries or the countless people who had died fell away, Gojo would put no more effort into what he considered meaningless. All he felt was the endless joy of strength....and the sting of pride to prove it. 

Makima looked on curiously. He was the Worlds Greatest but even she hadn’t expected this much resilience. The look on his face told her that his mind hadn’t survived this attack, which was no bother. For what she had planned, he wouldn’t need it. 

Gojo took two steps forward, disappearing and reappearing when the Gun Devil launched a barrage at him. He’d need to be within 200 metres of her for this to work...he was already there. Gojo summoned up more energy than he ever had before, coming close to running dry before releasing it, sewing it into every air particle within a 200 metre radius. The contract was hard to maintain but he managed. He crossed his index and middle fingers and tucked in his other fingers on both hands, before crossing them over his face. Today, Makima would witness true Divinity. 

“Domain Expansion: Peerless Immeasurable Void.” 

The entire city became the centre of the universe. Oil blackness was everywhere and unavoidable. Every light in the universe was there, every sun burned harder than every before, every black hole become more bottomless. All the universe was unleashed, made stronger by Satoru Gojo. His coat still blowing behind him despite the absence of any wind, he strode forward appearing instantly before Makima, who struggled against the flow of information that threatened to destroy her mind. He had no more worries about the Gun Devil, itself paralysed behind him. 

“H-h-how” she managed, her entire being fighting against omniscience. 

“Every living being is the author of his own health and disease. You chose to attack me, suffer the consequences of your failure.”

Makima tried with her last ounce of will to manipulate the Gun Devil to attack but it couldn’t. As if to demonstrate her powerlessness, Gojo reached his hand out to the side and snapped his fingers with a almost bored sounding “Hollow Purple”, putting no effort into aiming at all. Immeasurable Void carried his strongest offensive attack on the air before the unavoidable indigo light appeared in front of the devil. Double and subtract, the Gun Devil was cored as all the crying faces in its ribcage were finally shut up and erased. It quickly succumbed to its own weight and the weight of endless knowledge being funnelled into its mind. The Gun Devil was dead. 

Makima was hopeless, her brain fighting against inevitability. Eventually, she was forced to admit defeat, it was the second the last thing she’d ever think. 

“Halloween.”

Gojo blinked. That was a new one. 

“Halloween, halloween, halloween, halloween.”

This was the first and only time Makima’s mind was destroyed

Makima was gone, her body fell to the floor as Gojo’s Domain disappeared, revealing the massacred ruins of the city. What was left of Makima continued her mumbling until her body dissolved into a sea of mice, who’s squeaks sounding suspiciously like Halloween. Gojo was without care, he’d achieved true divinity now. 

Gojo floated up beyond the clouds to marvel at the stars who’s brilliance he’d surpassed. The World’s Strongest Sorcerer, far greater still.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gojo’s line at the end was taken from Buddha, I was inspired by his ‘throughout heaven and earth’ quote during his showdown with Toji. I may have pushed it using Angel’s weapons to break Infinity, but I figure it’s more interesting like this.


	3. Megumi vs Aki

Fushiguro Megumi vs Hayakawa Aki

Megumi scratched his raven spikes of hair and adjusted his high collar as he walked through the deserted park. Yuji told him that it was a shortcut back to the school from downtown that he used a lot when he went running. Megumi failed to see how, it was massive and even if it wasn’t dark out the trees surrounding the area would make it hard to navigate towards the end. He supposed with how fast Yuji was running he didn’t notice how far he’d actually gone. Whatever. 

It was late, he’d been out exorcising some stupid worm spirit that wouldn’t stay still. Megumi felt frustrated, he was supposed to be moving forward faster now that Gojo was gone, but he kept being sent on these stupid missions that he couldn’t gain anything from. All of a sudden, Megumi heard a tremendous snap not too far away. He something...not exactly like cursed energy, but close and headed quickly towards it.

From a ways away deeper in the park he saw something that immediately put him on edge. Some monstrous facsimile of a foxes head, as big as a building covered in gigantic concentric eyes, with a maw filled with needle like teeth. It disappeared quickly, to reveal a young man in his early twenties wearing a black business suit with his dark hair up in a top knot. There was a katana in his hand and a second one with a circular hilt sheathed on his back. His dark eyes looked tired as they gazed upon the chewed remains of whatever had been in the foxes mouth before, before they turned to gaze at Megumi with some sense of trepidation. The man quietly dropped his lit cigarette and stamped it underfoot, his grip on his sword visibly tightening. 

Megumi surreptitiously put his hands together, making his thumbs form the ears and his right fingers split down the middle to form the mouth of his Divine Dogs. 

The dark haired man called out ‘What’re you doing here at this time kid? I’m a Public Safety Devil Hunter, this isn’t safe for a civilian. ’ 

Megumi felt annoyed at being called a kid ‘I’m aware, and I didn’t think there were any more cursed spirit summoners other than Sugure Geto. My name is Megumi Fushiguro, jujutsu sorcerer in training. What are you doing here topknot?’

‘It’s Aki, and watch it. What do you mean jujutsu sorcerer? You’re one of those assassins after me and Denji aren’t you? That’s why you’re hands are together like that, for summoning something.’ 

Immediately, Aki’s hand blurred towards his waistband and drew a handgun, firing at Megumi, who quickly ducked out of the way. He reacted immediately, he had to counter now before Aki did. His hands resumed there positions and with a shout of ‘Divine Dog: Totality!’ he released his favourite shikigami. A monochrome werewolf creature bounded on all fours out from Megumi’s shadow towards Aki, who’s expression steeled immediately as he dropped his handgun.

Totality’s claws lashed out at Aki, who deftly deflected them with his sword. The beast followed up with a bite as Megumi came running behind it, brandishing a blackened sword in his own hands. Megumi kicked off a nearby tree and landed behind Aki, who moved quicker than Megumi could have expected to parry both blows. Megumi and Totality worked in perfect sync, a claw swipe at Aki’s head caused him to duck, only for him to dive to barely miss the sorcerers low strike severing his ankle. After Megumi landed a shallow but long slash to Aki’s side, the man rolled, dropping his sword as he made as much distance as he could between the two. Megumi hung back as Totality roared towards the Devil Hunter, he didn’t want to get too much blood in his hair.

Aki’s middle and ring fingers and thumb closed together as his pointer and pinky rose up in the shape of a beasts head. He aimed so that the gap between his fingers targeted the dog before calmly calling ‘Kon’. The Fox Devils head appeared out of nowhere next to Totality, it’s gargantuan mouth opened wide enough to swallow the wolf in its entirety. Totality made a futile attempt to escape before its mouth closed, only for its hand to be trapped between the Foxes needle like teeth and severed at the wrist. It’s hand landed limply on the ground before dissolving into shadows. Aki rubbed his arm, as blood from the newly bared flesh ran down his wrist. 

Megumi looked on shocked before quickly taking off after Aki with his blade still in hand, hoping to take advantage of his disarmament. His hopes were ignored as Aki moved faster still, picking up his katana off the ground before the two clashed. Aki pushed against Megumi, staring angrily into his green eyes before breaking the clash. Megumi attacked with a diagonal slash but his wrist was caught in Aki’s hand swiftly. Aki’s sword hilt bashed his jaw, dizzying him before he reversed his grip and stabbed the katana through Megumi’s thigh and wrenched it. The jujutsu sorcerers leg emanated with boiling agony as he dropped his paralysed sword, before Aki’s foot launched into his stomach, sending him flying as he pulled his sword free. 

Megumi coughed out the blood that had built up in his mouth. Up close he was no match for Aki, it was like he could see all his moves coming from miles away. His swordsmanship was ahead of anything he’d seen before other than Maki as well. None of his summons could back him up like Totality could either, so he’d have to avoid attacking him up close from now on. Aki walked slowly towards him, likely catching his breath before he continued. Megumi tried to finish him off quickly while he was unfocused by laying one hand atop another, before spreading his fingers in the shape of a elephants head.

Max Elephant appeared over Aki’s head, all four legs angled down to crush him underfoot. Without even looking up, the Devil Hunter rolled to the side as it crashed into the ground before once again calling ‘Kon’. The Fox head beaded itself before lashing out with a massive arm covered in the same concentric eyes. It’s claws raked the side of the black marked elephant, gutting it entirely. As it’s intestines fell out, it too dissolved into shadows. 

———  
Aki wondered why Megumi was still fighting. Nothing he’d done had worked so far, he was clearly outmatched. Aki felt tired all the time now, he’d never really enjoyed fighting but now it felt more like a chore than even a struggle. Aki had killed both of the creatures Megumi had summoned and dominated him in close range, he had nothing that Future couldn’t see, so he should just give up so he could take him back for questioning. He saw the boy shakily stand back up on his bloody leg and sighed, he didn’t want to kill anyone today. Megumi’s hand lifted up before pointing at the still manifested Fox....and snapped.

A Great Serpent leapt out of the shadow of the trees and wrapped around the Fox Devil’s arm, restraining it as it continued to circle its body before biting down into the back of its head. The Fox howled futilely at the pain before coughing up blood. More and more blood poured out its mouth as Aki heard a relentless snarling and growling sounding from inside the Fox. It must have been that wolf creature, it’d somehow survived inside the Fox Devils stomach and was trying to claw its way out. The Fox began to fall limp and Aki realised he wouldn’t be able to rely on it any longer. This would be harder than he’d first assumed.

Aki brandished his sword as he ran back at Megumi who pulled a pole arm out of his shadow, the fur at the hilt separating the handle from the curved blade atop. Megumi rested it against his shoulder as his hands rejoined, this time with his thumbs crossed while his fingers stretched out like birds wings. With a call of ‘Nue!’ a large owl like creature shot out of his hands faster than Aki could counter, he barely got his arms up to block before it knocked him down. The owl flew back around straight at Megumi as he leapt onto its back. He flew back around as Aki tried to sit up and caught the polearm in a wide stance before slashing deep into Aki’s back before he could get back up.

Aki winced, his future sight didn’t really matter when Megumi moved faster than he could. Megumi came back around for another swing which Aki tried to block, only to be knocked back down and still receive a small cut on his cheek. The momentum from the bird flying was too much for him, and the Fox Devil was incapacitated for now. 

Aki breathed out, he really wanted a cigarette now but he had no time for it. He foresaw Megumi’s bird diving to the left and reached out to where it would be. His hand grasped.....and the Ghost Devil’s invisible hand tore Nue’s wing off, causing it and Megumi to crash into the ground. Aki felt disappointed, he’d made this contract in honour of Himeno.....but using it reminded him of why he didn’t have to pay for it or Fox or any contract in any meaningful way anymore. 

As Megumi struggle to stand up, having landed on his bad leg, Aki reached out towards the now dead Fox Devils body using the Ghost Devil’s invisible intangible hand. Totality had nearly finished clawing it’s way out, or it would have if the Ghost’s hand didn’t close around its neck. Aki sensed it struggling and squeezed with the brutal strength of the creature that took Himeno from him, snapping Totality’s neck. He dismissed the hand as the wolf went limp. Megumi stood up and with a bitter, resolute look on his face he summoned a massive amount of power to him. Aki could see the world turning black but even he wasn’t ready as black shadows spread like liquid across the floor in a thirty foot radius. It was like an unholy oil slick, which grew even more disconcerting as countless toad creatures and black wings began rising from the sinking fluid. 

‘Domain Expansion: Chimera Shadow Garden!’

Faster than Aki could think, ones tongue shot out and wrapped around the katana Angel had given him, it and the blade sinking beneath the liquid never to be seen again. Aki’s rage grew as he unsheathed the Curse Nail from his back. 

———

Maintaining his domain had grown much easier for Megumi after he’d started training in earnest since Gojo was taken. He could even perform two in one day at an extreme push and Principal Yaga said he was close to creating a fully formed one that would trap people and ensure attacks. Megumi was frustrated that he couldn’t do that right now, but he would have to manage. 

He summoned two toads who’s tongues fired out at Aki who ducked under them without hesitation. His hand lashed out at Megumi behind him, only for it to turn to more shadow liquid upon being hit. The man turned and angled his sword towards the next clone that appeared at him like a rapier held by a master duelist. Megumi found his sword confusing, was it a rapier? It had a handle like a katana, but its blade only had a point....like a nail. Before Megumi could finish his thought, Aki had aimed the nail-sword at a shadow clone and shouted ‘fire!’. An invisible force hit the butt of the sword, as it was driven into the clone, a distant grinding sounded vaguely like ‘three’ could be heard. A bird flew by Aki’s back, but he ducked out of the way before thrusting the blade upwards, catching it through the neck, as the same grinding counted ‘two’.

Megumi looked on confused as he saw Aki attack shadows twice in a row. His predictive ability must let him know when something wasn’t actually him right? And what was that force projecting his sword forward, was it the same thing counting down? Megumi slid under that grasping hand power that had crippled Nue and stopped behind Aki, channeling cursed energy into the back of his knife shaped hand before chopping it into the back of Aki’s outstretched one, neatly breaking his wrist. Aki grimaced before reversing the grip of his nail-sword, Megumi’s replacing himself with a shadow clone before he could use his undodgeable thrust. ‘One’ grinded out as Megumi palm struck Aki’s head as two birds raked his back, deepening the glaive wound he’d made earlier. 

Aki fell to his hands and knees which immediately began sinking into the tar like blackness he was surrounded by. The black sword Aki had sent flying earlier swam through the blackness only to emerge hilt first into Megumi’s hand, which grasped it. He lifted the cursed sword, ready to decapitate the top-knotted man.

‘Anything else you want to say?’ spoke Megumi, who took the moment to adjust his grip and reorient himself. He was on the very edge of figuring out how to perfect his domain, just the right shift in energy and the right contract and he’d have it. He’d likely need to take Aki to be interrogated, whatever assassins he was looking out for could be dangerous.

‘Yeah...’ breathed out Aki, who spat out a wad of blood from the palm strike he’d received earlier. ‘....Curse Devil, finish it.’

‘Zero.’

On sheer instinct Megumi replaced himself with a shadow clone and reappeared at the very edge of his domain’s reach, but it wouldn’t be enough to stop what had begun. Instantly, the clone was entrapped within a great rib cage, as though he was caught by the legs of a spider. Two massive skeletal hands seized the clones arms and pulled them out as a pair of horrific skulls, like the melding of a human and a bull, bit down into either side of its neck. There was almost a sucking sound as all the shadow liquid that made the clones ‘blood’ was drained by its fangs into the Curse Devil. This continued until it liquified the clone and kept going, vacuuming up the entire domain until it was gone, leaving them back on the grassy park.

Megumi fell to his knees and vomited as Aki shakily rose up. That was the most vile presence he’d ever felt come from any spirit he’d seen before. It went beyond monstrous, it felt utterly without emotion or passion, just a need to absorb human life that was all encompassing and all targeting. Aki resheathed the Curse sword, before wincing as he examined his broken wrist. He turned towards Megumi who summoned Escape Rabbit, a swarm of white bunnies carrying him on their backs as far away as possible. 

Once he got far enough away, he stood back up, the pain from his stabbed thigh having finally subsisted, though the lingering discontent Curse had given him wouldn’t. He had to keep trying, he saw that sword take massive amounts of energy from Aki and he wasn’t healing himself, so the damage the Domain had done would still be affecting him. A broken wrist, huge lacerations on his back, possibly even a concussion. Megumi was still in with a chance, he’d just have to finish it now. He returned his hand to an upwards facing position, and rereleased the Great Serpent, which coiled protectively around him. 

Aki groaned with a look of reservation on his face before calling ‘Ghost Devil, I’ve already payed you in full......so come out.’ If it was possible, the night darkened further and silence overtook the arena. Flower petals fell to the floor in waves, falling gracefully until a hand crushed them underpalm, followed by a wave of hands connected to arms that flowed up into a beautiful flower field that birthed a grotesque human head, long stringy hair and stitched up features frozen in a pitying smile. Megumi knew this creature was even more powerful than the Fox Aki had summoned earlier and dread filled his heart. The Serpent slid across the floor faster than thought, but the Ghost Devil was faster. A wall of hands seized the Serpent as they pushed it to the floor, some pinning it as others ripped pieces of and crushed it in a blur of brutality until only its head was left, which Ghost treaded over. 

Megumi watched in horror, one by one his strongest shikigami were destoryed-pain flared in his sternum as Aki delivered a brutal snap kick. Megumi tried to respond with a slash from his sword only for it to be deflected with the Devil Hunter’s broken arm as a follow up punch smashed Megumi’s nose, blood pouring from the now broken structure coming ever faster as it was slammed onto Aki’s knee. Aki finished his barrage with a chest kick that launched Megumi flying until his back slammed into a tree, landing in a seated position barely awake.

He’d lost his sword and his eyes were watering from the pain in his nose and stomach. Everything hurt, his energy was almost all gone. Megumi considered surrendering....but by this point he didn’t think Aki would recognise a win as anything other than having killed him. Megumi felt broken inside, he’d sworn to himself never to summon it again but he had no choice. At least it would always target the strongest presence on the field, so he would at least be freed from the Ghost Devil. He rose to his feet and with a glum resignation began his chant, angling his fists to be outstretched and parallel. 

‘With this treasure I summon: Eight Handled Sword Divergent Sila Divine General: Mahoraga.’

From between rows of howling wolves and toads, stepped the strongest creature seen that night. Rippling with the muscled build of a statuesque martial artist, dressed in no more than a black hakama and gold bands. A golden, eight-spoked wheel nailed into its back, and a silvery sword eight hand-spans long bandaged to its hand. Angelic wings sprouted from its eyes and a long ridged tail extended from the back of its head. An unusual existence, the Zenin clans greatest enemy: Mahoraga.

Megumi allowed himself a smirk despite himself. Mahoraga would undoubtably attack the Ghost Devil first and likely Aki afterwards, leaving Megumi last. It was pretty funny, this would be the closest a Ten Shadows user ever got to Mahoraga working with them. As it broke into a sprint towards the Ghost, he reached into the shadows to pull a final weapon out, a three-section staff. Maki made fun of him accidentally hitting himself with it, but Megumi had been given a weapon suitable for a special grade sorcerer and he’d be a fool not to know how to use it. Megumi pulled Playful Cloud to full extension, before spreading his legs into a low stance, a section in both hands.

Mahoraga ran full force into the Ghost Devils waiting wall of hands, punching and kicking all the while in a flurry, breaking a few arms but in its grasp all the same. Fingers gouged, palms crushed and wrists ripped, hundreds of pounds of cursed flesh was torn from Mahoraga’s body in an instant and then its wheel turned with a foreboding click, replacing it even faster. All of a sudden, the Ghost Devils hands were unable to move Mahoraga in the slightest. The spirit grinned as tens of hands palmed impotently at its body, before its bandaged hand swung and severed them. 

A pile of large arms adorned the floor as Mahoraga kicked outwards into the main body of the Ghost Devil, sending up a storm of petals. It delivered a vicious one-two cross to the devils smiling face before turning and manipulating its knowledge of Baji Quan to throw all its mass and speed into a hip check. A shockwave blew out as the Ghost Devil shot backwards through a tree, Mahoraga already after it. It futilely raised its hands to stop the Eight-Handled Sword and was rewarded for it when Mahoraga’s blade adorned fist pierced through its body. As the Curse Purification Sword channeled positive energy through the Ghost’s body, sanctifying flames burst from the Ghosts sewn shut mouth and eyes. Mahoraga tore its arm from the Ghosts charred remains.

As this was happening, Megumi sped forth Playful Cloud in hand. Aki redrew the nail-sword as Megumi leapt up, whipping out the staff in a sweeping motion which Aki blocked with extreme difficulty, the sheer force of the special grade cursed weapon shaking his already injured hand. Megumi lashed out with the weapon at full extension swinging at Aki’s head before revolving towards his ankles, Aki ducking and jumping to avoid both. Megumi overextended, not quite used to the weapon, which gave Aki an opening to line up and deliver a thrust with the thin sword, injecting pain and illness directly into Megumi’s body. As Megumi recovered, Aki spun around his back before lining up and firing another one through his shoulder, a weak attack from the spiky haired boy causing him to jump back. 

Aki lined up the final one he’d need and fired. But this time, at the very last second Megumi spun, the blade whistling past his back. With black fire in his eyes, Megumi grasped the same staff section with both hands before pulling it to his shoulder like a baseball bat. He swung for the fences as the end of Playful Cloud smashed into Aki’s face with all the force of a special grade cursed tool. Aki rocketed back, smashing through several trees before his back crashed into a final one, sinking to the floor in a pool of his own blood, his nose broken and shattered teeth spilling from his mouth. His top knot had split, his dark hair falling over his face matted with blood and sweat. 

Mahoraga, sensing the Curse Nail’s power, headed off towards him, sword arm raised high. But just as Megumi was celebrating victory Aki’s hand rose up....and his index and middle fingers formed the shape of a gun pointed at his forehead.

——— 

Black sorrow scorched Aki to the bone, all fear and excitement had left him, replaced only by the sheer misery of what he was now. Everything he hated he’d become, illness filled his heart. Kishibe had told him he should feel lucky, aside from the power he’d gotten, any physical payment a devil might ask from a contract he could now provide without permanent injury, he even had his lifespan back....but Aki already felt like he’d sold his soul. He’d betrayed his family by continuing to live. But that didn’t matter. He had to get home and see Denji and Power and Angel again. After Himeno and Nomo....he couldn’t be away from them too.

Aki’s finger pressed to his forehead and his thumb pushed down. A cacophonous ‘bang!’ was released, along with a spray of pink mist and bone fragments that painted the back of the tree. His arm almost burst, black metal and plastic pouring out into the shape of a M16A1 rifle taking the place of his forearm. His shirt was covered in blood shaped like tiger spots. The hole in his face was filled with squirming black cables, a hammer taking the place of his topknot and the barrel of a pistol jutting out from his face. Aki felt his mind be clouded by the ceaseless vacant joy and sadism of the devil that he was now one with.... and Gun Man smiled.

As Mahoraga appeared before him, blade arm raised for a splitting strike, Aki lifted his own arm, barrel pointed directly at Mahoraga’s stomach. A defeaning ‘blam!’ came as Mahoraga was torn in half, its torso soaring through the air with its intestines flying in the wind like streamers. It shattered multiple trees into splinters on it’s way before skidding across the floor, digging a deep trench into the earth. As it stopped, bleeding deep into the earth, Gun Man took massive handfuls of cursed blood into his hand from its lower half and poured it into his mouth, staining it red. As he did, all his wounds began closing, his broken ribs mended back to pristine. 

Megumi finished his sprint and took an end section of Playful Cloud in both hands before slamming it down over head. Gun Man barely moved, the rifle deflecting the mountainous blow with ease. He grinned as the pistol barrel from his face fired with an even louder ‘bang!’. Megumi ducked to the left only for a huge chunk to be ripped from his right shoulder, the force of the shot forcing him facedown into a pile of his own blood as splinters from shattered trees perforated his back. Gun Man reached into his pocket and pulled out a cigarette, lighting it on the glowing barrel before placing it between his lips taking a long drag. This was life, killing anything and everything around him. That’s what makes it worth living. 

Mahoraga was back on his feet looking no worse for ware, his wheel turned once more. The two creatures looked as though they were staring the other down, despite their lack of eyes. In a flash, the two crashed together. Mahoraga’s arm chopped down and split his rifle arm in two as Gun Man grabbed the wing jutting from its face with his free hand. He swung around using it as a bar, landing on the curses back. His face gun lit up as Mahoraga’s head was cored from behind. It fell to its knees as Gun Man idly examined the severed wing in his hand....before Mahoraga grabbed his leg and slammed him into the ground with enough force to crater it. The cigarette was forced from his mouth with a gasp as he barely rolled away from the follow up stab. He aimed his regenerated rifle at Mahoraga and fired but to his shock, the impact barely bruised the curse as it charged towards him, grinning with satisfaction as it hit him with a clothesline sending him skidding face down in the grass.

Mahoraga disappeared and reappeared over Gun Man, burying it’s knee in his spine. Gun Man fired at the floor with both guns, the recoil throwing the curse off as he readjusted himself, the blood from its lower half repairing his spine. Gun Man didn’t lose his grin as he doubled back before reversing his arm and grabbing the barrel shroud with his other hand. It fired, rocketing his elbow into Mahoraga, the stock grinding away at its intestines. He dodged two sword swings and a knee before delivering a spearing hook to its liver causing it to double over as he head butted the curse, discharging both guns into its face as he did. Mahoraga recovered swiftly with a sweeping kick that Gun Man jumped over... only for Mahoraga to pivot onto its hands and left foot, the Divine General striking out with a masterful Manji Kick. 

It hit Gun Man like a bomb, shooting him straight up into the sky near the clouds. The strike shattered his face gun, the cables working fast to replace the lost appendage. The ceaseless joy that filled Gun Man left him like so much spurting blood....and Aki regained control. He began falling hundreds of meters as his face healed. Aki felt hopeless, every time he hit it with something it regenerated quickly and just stopped taking damage all together. Blunt force and bullets were no longer on the table now, he’d have to try something else. Aki smashed back first though tree branches until he landed back in the park, his back once again broken and mending. Aki pushed past his disgust and pain and found...ah. The Curse Devil would drain all the blood and energy from it, that’d finish it off. 

He took off in a sprint, the Future Devil informing him where the sword was. He turned and picked it up without stopping, the wing-faced curse in sight. Without stopping he threw the sword as hard as he could towards Mahoraga before yelling ‘fire!’ The sword doubled in speed as though flicked and pierced right through its chest accompanied with ‘three’. Aki flipped over the Purification Swords thrust before ripping the sword back out of it. He saw its reaction seconds before and slid under its follow up backhand, before lining up another attack directly to its back ‘two’. Mahoraga turned back around faster than ever before, his arm coming out in a palm strike that Aki caught with his gun arm, smashing the handle. He lined up a final strike and fired it....and only the tip managed to break its skin. Mahoraga grinned for a final time and reached down...only for Aki to see it coming and jump back. It’s hands palmed air as Aki aimed his rifle arm behind him, the barrel firing away. Recoil launched him elbow first into the handle, forcing the sword deep into Mahoraga’s skin.

‘Curse now!’

Something approaching horror adorned Mahoraga’s face as both its arms were wrenched out to the side by a much greater strength. As the ribcage trapped it, it howled with fury as both sides of its head were pierced by the Curse Devil’s teeth in a unholy crucifixion. Immediately the wheel stopped turning as all the blood and cursed energy was drained from the Divine General. As the Curse Devil disappeared, dropping Mahoraga onto boneless feet, Aki changed both hands into rifles, aiming both of them and his head at the curse. With a thundering rumble, all three fired at once, shattering Mahoraga first into chunks, then fragments, then dust. The earth and blood was churned into red mud that flecked the perforated wheel that was left.

As Aki caught his breath, Megumi reappeared in front of him. The boy looked like a corpse, his shoulder almost cored as his arm hung lifelessly behind him. There was more red on him than black and his spiky hair fell down around his head, weighed down and matted by blood. Aki didn’t imagine he looked better himself, there was a curse spirits brains in his hair still from his previous fight. But what genuinely frightened Aki was the look of violent joy on his face, a blood smeared grin from ear to ear. Aki felt worried, this was something he wouldn’t even expect from Denji. He levelled his rifle at the boy once more. He had to get home, he had a fam-friends to lose now, he had to get home.

‘Look, that’s enough. I don’t want to kill you, and I don’t think we’re on opposing sides. Just surrender ok?’ 

‘Hahahahahaha! Well before anything....’

Megumi raised his good hand, his pinky and ring finger curled in and his pointer and middle joined together, bent only at the second joint so they were pointing out. 

‘Perfect Domain Expansion: Beast Shadow Shrine.’

A spheres of absolute blackness spread and locked shut, trapping the two in. Aki watched a great Buddhist shrine rise behind Megumi, painted in resplendent red paint. It stood there beaming for a second....and began leaking shadows like oil from every nook and cranny. An obsidian film stained the shrine before the heads of beasts began appearing from the film. Birds, snakes, wolves and elephants, the entire animal kingdom formed from choking blackness. 

‘Divine Dog:Totality.’

Instantly, actually instantly a werewolf made from black shadow attacked Aki. He can’t even scream as it’s snakelike fangs pierce his throat as it’s clawed hand snapped his spine like a twig. It relinquished him before standing over head with what looked like a grin. The Serpents fangs, the mass of Max Elephant, even Nue’s owl wings sprouted from its back. It howled as it dissolved with the rest of the domain, ending the fight. 

‘Hahaha, it’ll take more than a broken neck to kill my dog...’ giggled Megumi, now holding Playful Cloud for a final strike.

Aki readied himself to die as the Gun dissolved from his body. The last blood healed his injuries, but he had no energy left to fight at all against Megumi. He spared a gaze at the Fox Devil’s corpse and noticed that it’s belly was totally torn open. He hadn’t even noticed, he was too busy fighting Mahoraga. Not even snapping its neck had finished it, damn. 

Maybe this was ok, something as underserving as him of life shouldn’t get to keep it-

‘Don’t die Aki!’

Oh. And all of a sudden Power and Denji’s laughing faces came rushing to him, clear as day. But there were still people relying on him. How could he forget his family?

‘Wait, wait! I surrender!’ Aki yelled, holding up his hands, his eyes visible instead of the gun barrel.

‘Oh.......ok..’ Megumi’s face fell from his blood crazed grin as he dropped Playful Cloud. Whatever trance he’d entered into had ended now. 

‘I’ll, I’ll call Shoko,’ said Megumi as he pulled out his phone and messily dialled, smearing blood on the screen as he did. 

He mumbled into the speaker for a minute before hanging up, dropping the phone as he did. Aki met Megumi’s jade eyes for a brief second, seeing all the exhausting and relief in them before Megumi fell forward onto him, totally knocked out. 

Aki laid there confused but relieved. Whatever happened from here, he’d find a way home. He knew it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. I got the idea for Megumi’s perfected domain from Sukuna’s, as he has a sort of mentor role to Megumi I thought it would be fun if he followed his shrine theme. As well, the hand sign he used is very similar to Gojo, since I thought it’d be neat if he only had to use one hand like Satoru.
> 
> I was more than a little loose with what Aki was capable of this chapter, but the points more having fun than being totally accurate.


	4. Alucard vs Makima Part 1

Many, likely Integra herself would question what Alucard had chosen to do, but he’d made his decision based on what he’d heard and seen. He’d been ordered to assassinate a woman called Makima and knew little more than that. His target had been stressed to be a surpassing threat that should be taken with the utmost caution and seriousness. He’d doubted it at first until Integra had declared that he should fight them with everything he had, and that even Zero Release was justified. He would have blanched at that if he could get any paler, what kind of creature would justify that level of force that he’d never heard of. All they’d known was that this ‘Makima’ looked like a fairly ordinary woman and lived in Tokyo. That and that she could be considered a threat to the entire world. Taking this into account, Alucard had decided that he should make sure she’s alone before he attacked her and had been tracking her for a while. 

Which is why Alucard had decided he needed to take her on inside a local mall. It was the first time he’d realised she was on her own and she wouldn’t expect an attack in an area like this. There may be some collateral damage, but a handful of humans wouldn’t matter against a supposed worldwide threat. People parted like the Egyptian sea from the gargantuan man dressed in red as Alucard stepped into the malls entrance. He could smell Makima on the second balcony floor inside a clothe store. He jumped off the escalator railing and stood on top of the railing before dropping down, shocking even more people. He stepped into the store and caught sight of her.

There was nothing especially noteworthy about her he thought at first. A red haired woman with a braid and side bangs, of average height and wearing a casual long sleeved shirt and jeans. She was sorting through a clothing rack, paying no mind to the vampire king behind her. Alucard’s smile widened as his glasses caught a glare, for he knew better than anyone that appearances could be deceiving.

‘You must be Alucard.’ Said Makima without turning from the rack.

‘Indeed. I already know who you are as well Miss Makima. I believe if you know who I am, you must know why I’m here as well.’

‘I do. A dog always follows orders, I know that well myself. And your Integra wouldn’t be focused on me for any other reason than my death. An unrealistic endeavour I must say.’

‘Hahahaha! That’s the attitude I like from my foes, it’s boring fighting those that know they don’t have a chance. I should inform you anyway; those that my master have told me to kill are no more than corpses walking.’ 

Makima turned her head with a hollow smile on her face, and Alucard met her eyes, golden, with concentric rings within. Alucard’s grim persisted, even as blood spewed down his mouth in drops while his organs were churned by some unseen force. Unimpeded, he lifted his arm to bare a 6kg silver magnum pistol at Makima before balancing it on his forearm as he aimed. It fired with a cacophonous sound, the bullet ripping through her throat, leaving her head attached by a strand. Her body collapsed against the clothing rack in a heap as the wall behind her was painted red. Alucard wiped his mouth, waiting for her next move. 

The corpse without moving an inch otherwise opened its mouth near silently as a chain appeared, with a dark haired boy with shaded eyes and numerous earrings appeared, connected to a chain from her womb. Without warning two enormous octopus tentacles appeared from the wall, one curled around Makima as the other turned its suckers towards Alucard. A great spume of ink erupted from it, blinding him and obscuring Makima’s body. Before Alucard could recover his line of sight on her he heard a single word.

‘Bang.’

And was promptly blown out of the shop, over the balcony, crashing down on a crowd of screaming people who were already panicked from the earlier gun shot. The space between his arms and his waist had been pulverised into liquid, leaving him lying in a puddle of his own blood and organs. Shadows twisted as his blood was sucked back into his body and he stood back up, without even a speck of dust on his coat or his hat off kilter.

‘Skin Devil. Zombie Devil.’

Alucard saw Makima running along the balcony above him into the massed crowd, her body transforming into a random dark haired woman who was quickly lost in the chaos above him. While he hadn’t lost sight of her, he could no longer find her scent. So even that was obscured, interesting. He began to run after her until a man from the crowd attempted to tackle him. He wasn’t pushed in the slightest, but he still stopped to see what idiot had tried to get in his way. A once ordinary middle aged man stood there, his skin rotting green and his brain falling from a shattered skull. The vampire absentmindedly shrugged him off as he looked up to see the entire crowd had been turned into the same. 

‘Ghouls.’ Sighed Alucard ‘everybody thinks mindless fodder will suffice to defeat me.’ 

Without another word, Alucard drew a second iron black magnum, even heavier than the last and aimed them both at the crowd. Alucard aimed Jackal and Casull at the swarm of zombies and pulled the triggers. In between waves of explosive bullets forged by blessed silver perforating zombies were sounds of reloading. Any that tried to stop Alucard would be frozen in place by no more than his stare, waiting patiently for him to reload and finish them. The floor began piling with corpses, their blood draining into Alucard’s body as he casually pushed back the wave of undead. 

Alucard was interrupted from his massacre by the same smiling boy with the earrings appearing in front of him, his shin colliding with Alucard’s face. His wide-brimmed hat and glasses came off in a spray of blood as his nose bent to the side, but his grin only grew wider. He lashed out with a quick jab the boy sidestepped before elbowing him in the face again. But this time, Alucard’s face was barely moved. His leg lashed out in a languid kick to the boys shin, shattering the bone and causing him to drop to the floor.

‘This is it? A handful of ghouls and some underaged familiar? I’m disappointed Maki-‘

Jackal and Casull loudly crashed to the floor as Alucard’s hands went to his head, an odd pain spreading through his body before wrenching. His body was mangled by an invisible force, bones snapping and muscles tearing as it was twisted tighter and tighter, like wringing out a dishcloth. The twisting force was replaced with another that crushed him down into the floor, his liquified body splashing red on the mall floor.

The puddle bubbled before Alucard erupted out of it, looking no worse for wear but significantly less amused. That actually hurt. He looked up to see....there. On one of the far away balconies there was a fairly plain looking dark haired woman with her hands held parallel to each other, slowly adjusting them with the same dispassionate smile on her face. She must have changed her appearance. Alucard again balanced his gun against his forearm before firing, hitting the woman dead center in the forehead and demolishing her skull. That’ll stop her, thought Alucard as he saw Makima out of the corner of his eye. Wai-slash! Alucard split in two vertically, his left side falling over his right to the floor. Both halves moved independently to get up before rejoining, still no worse for wear.

Makima stood there amongst the piled bodies, having changed into a jacketless suit and acquired a sword between Alucard last seeing her. Her gaze seemed without passion still, despite the threat Alucard posed. 

‘I’d copied another woman’s appearance using the Skin Devils power before ordering her to act like she was using my contracts. I figured you would have fallen for it, though I’d hoped my sword contract would do more permanent damage to you.’ 

Rather than speaking Alucard remained silent. Before Makima could keep speaking his hand shot out holding Jackal before pulling the trigger. Makima’s hand flashed, splitting the bullet into two before her face, but Alucard was even faster. He appeared behind her before landing a knife hand blow into her back, lancing through her body and out her chest, holding her heart in his hand. He crushed it without hesitation, staining his glove and her shirt with an arterial spray.

‘Over 3 million souls live within me and I can exchange any of their lives for my own. You simply never had a chance to begin with.’ declared Alucard with confidence. There were few living beings that could survive having their heart destroyed and he’d already ruled out Makima being a werewolf or a vampire

To his surprise, Makima forced herself off his hand, coughing out blood as she did before reaching her hand behind her, again in the pose of a finger gun. Alucard raises his hands to block as she said ‘bang’ and still lost both of them and most of the skin on his face as he was sent flying back against the wall, cratering it. His eyes recovering first, he looked to see Makima standing unscathed, without a single drop of blood besmirching her appearance. He frowned. 

‘It appears we are at an impasse.’ 

‘Not quite. My contract with the Prime Minister allows me to transfigure my injuries into an appropriate illness for a Japanese citizen. You just gave some innocent mother a heart attack in front of her children a few seconds ago.’ 

Alucard scowled as she continued.

‘There is no limit to this, nor will you find me growing bored or desperate. To put it simply, you have 3 million lives and I have 126 million. It could take a while, but there is no chance of you outlasting me. Now then...’

‘Special Division 5.’ 

Without warning seven individuals appeared at Makima’s sides. Four men and three women all wearing black suits. Each of them grinned before pulling some sort of trigger and in a flash seven devils stood between them. Each had weapons growing out of their heads and hands, two had swords growing from their arms while another had numerous whips for fingers. Another held a spear while two more aimed crossbows and flamethrowers at the vampire king. Lastly, a woman wearing an apron of sewn together dynamite with an aerial bomb for a head. 

‘Eliminate the target.’

———— 

Makima weighed her options as the hybrids dispersed and Alucard pointed both hand cannons in a wide shooting stance. The hybrids would likely be able to keep him down but she’d need a more permanent way to be rid of him. It’d be too risky to try and have Angel create a wooden stake for her to use on him, and she wasn’t otherwise prepared to fight a vampire. Once she obtains Chainsaw Man these types of fights will be much easier.....ok that should work. Six chains spread from Makima’s back connected to six suited devil hunters. 

Crossbow Woman took a running stance before disappearing from eyesight, arrows flying at Alucard from all different directions. He deflected some with careful chops and took others head on, carving circular holes in his body. He crouched underneath one shot only to see Katana Man crouching before him, both hands held out to the side. Alucard grinned, holding his hands up to catch the attack only for Katana Man to step behind with with a sharp clink, a fourth sword projected from his foot. Alucard’s legs just beneath his waist were severed. His hands pressed against the floor as he lifted himself up only for his head to be slashed into torn pieces by a strike from the cackling Whip Woman.

He reformed further away, not noticing the Sword Man further behind him at the end of the hall. Sword Man raised both arms in the air as far as they would go, before deviating them slightly to the left and bending them back in a roof guard. His muscles rippled as he mustered all his strength before bringing both down in a diagonal cut. A titanic blade of air shot out of his arms with the strikes, shattering storefront glass and shredding pop up maps as it traveled towards Alucard who was busy dodging the strikes of the Spear Man, who expertly interlaced his rapid thrusts like a great sewing machine. Alucard jumped backwards only for Spear Man’s foot to slam into the ground, cracking it as five great spears erupted from the ground to impale Alucard, an ironic fate. The wind blade traveled down the mall with blistering alacrity, severing Alucard’s body as well as the Spear Man’s before carving a deep gash into the wall on the other side. 

As Alucard’s body fell to the floor with broken spear points sticking out of it, a cry of ‘burn up!’ could be heard, along with the snap of a lighter activating. The No Life Kings torso was engulfed in a stream of hellborn napalm, charring almost instantly as his fats rendered. Flamethrower Man halted his fire, letting his body burn faster than it could regenerate as Bomb Girl appeared overhead, propelling herself via explosions from her feet and back. Her leg wrapped in wicks projected from her knee until a warhead formed from her foot, appearing as though it was a surface to air missile, and every part of her body exploded towards the ceiling, sending her shooting towards the flaming Vampire King faster than sound. 

The missile kick connected with Alucard’s chafed remains with a cacophonous bang, all the remaining glass in the store shattering as a shockwave levelled the lower floor, toppling several of the balconies except the one Makima stood on. Black smoke was all that could be seen, even Alucard’s blood had evaporated in the heat. The hybrids all rejoined, centred around the black crater that was left of him.

It wasn’t close to enough. Alucard appeared before them without a scratch again. In his hand there was a....pager? He seemed to be contacting someone, though he put it away before long and spread his arms dramatically. 

‘Well, well this is more than I expected. I must commend these familiars Makima, they know how to fight. I will show you more of my power, in return for you having done so...’

The alchemical symbols on the backs of Alucard’s gloves glowed red as he placed them towards his head as his body was cast in shadow. Makima watched closely to see how he would continue as she had Angel produce six knives out of mere months.

‘Releasing control art restrictions: three, two, one...’

Mist spread from both sides of Alucard as he said his chant. His hands moved to frame his eye between his fingers, like he was taking a photograph of his targets. 

‘Approval of Situation C recognised, invoking the Cromwell invocation, ability restrictions lifted for limited use until the target is rendered silent...’

Eldritch red eyes spread from between his fingers to across his body and the mist around him, blackness twisting and curling around him like oil. It parted to reveal something truly monstrous. Alucard stood there, his suit and coat replaced with a binding leather suit that would do little to bind him, his hair having grown to waist length. It coiled and swept in the air as though alive, framing the manic grin on his face. Most horrifyingly was the single large eye on his chest, it’s unblinking scarlet iris staring directly at the group of unsettled hybrids.

‘Hahahahaha!’ Cackled Alucard, now not nearly as restrained as before ‘Come! I will gladly feast on those that would dare to attack me!’

Bomb Girl took a Sambo stance before her back detonated, projecting her at great speed towards Alucard who simply pulled back his arm and straightened out his fingers to make a point. Her fist collided with his chest at great speed before detonating, the resulting explosion obscuring both of them. The cloud of smoke dissipated to reveal Alucard standing unscathed with Bomb Girls heart in his hand, his spear hand attack having pierced through her body. She coughed blood before her whole body went slack as he pulled the wick covered heart back out before turning his gaze to the still amassed hybrids frozen in place. 

He tossed it up and down for a few seconds before lifting it over his head and tossing it towards them with alacrity. As it passed in between the hybrids his other arm seemingly manifested Jackal from thin air and fired, piercing the heart with the silver bullet. The bomb heart burst into the greatest explosion seen thus far, scattering the hybrids with a twenty foot mushroom cloud. First came Quanxi, who blitzed across the walls and ceiling raining arrows onto Alucard, who in turn projected shadowy hands from his back that blocked or caught the arrows being used before returning fire with Casull and Jackal. As she ran overhead him he quickly turned and lead his shot to a far side of the ceiling, severing her leg with Casull before she could react. 

Next came Katana Man and Sword Man, who Makima had ordered to work together as best they could. The hoodie wearing one on the left, while the Imperial Japanese uniform wearing hybrid occupied the right. Seven steps and they assaulted Alucard. Katana Man was much quicker and more refined while Sword Mans greater power and range filled in his gaps. Alucard simply parried each of their strikes with his forearms or occasionally the barrel of Jackal before riposting, thrusting his gun towards Katana Man’s chest and coring it with a single shot. In the instant he faltered, Sword Man leapt back as more shadowy arms grew from Alucard’s back before plunging towards the staggered hybrid, closing around his limbs and throat before ripping him to bloody pieces, his physical arms each grabbing a side of the massive bullet wound in his chest before pulling it in two, the unleashed vampire dropping them without care. 

Sword Man dodged back behind Flamethrower Man, taking a stance alongside Whip Woman. Flamethrower Man would immolate Alucard, and whatever made it through would have to fight all of them at once. Again there was a simple snap along with a great bellowing of flame....only to be drowned out by a much greater bellow. A disjointed rabid snarl, the sound of a beast devoid of emotions beyond killing impulses.

The hybrids line was broken like a match stick by the snarling Hound of Baskerville emerging from the flames.

Faster than anyone could react, it’s jaws plunged around Flamethrower Man’s side before lifting him up and wracking him side to side, spraying blood and viscera everywhere before swallowing him whole. Whip Woman back peddled from the beast only for her back to bump into the bloodcrazed Alucard, who’s knife hand chopped downwards and slashed through her shoulder to her heart, dropping her instantly. Sword Man managed to avoid being eaten entirely by a charge from the Hound but lost an arm in the process, and he was unable to dodge Alucard’s punch severing his head afterwards.

Alucard stepped before Makima once again, his hair blowing in the non-existent wind. The shadows that made up his body spat out two objects at her feet. The heads of Spear Man and Crossbow Woman, finished off without her knowing. Seven trails of blood all looked at Alucard’s feet. Foolish, he hadn’t accomplished much, and her contract was almost done.

‘Impressive fighting abilities, but they won’t make any difference against me. My contra-‘

‘Is null and void.’

What.

‘Explain yourself.’

‘I informed my master that you had a contract with the Prime Minister, so she and her butler have paid him a visit. Suffice to say, your aegis has fallen.’

And for the first time seen by anything approaching human, unmistakable fear could be seen on Makima’s face. This wasn’t acceptable, her plans didn’t account for this. She needed to get rid of him now. 

‘V-very well then’ and her tone darkened. ‘I am tired of this. Hell Devil, I sacrifice these six men. Send Alucard to hell.’ 

The six men chained next to her simultaneously thrust their knives into their stomachs before wrenching them open, their entrails spilling out like greasy eels before some unholy force manipulated them to unspool and join. The controlled men moaned as their intestines joined together, gradually gaining shape as layer after layer wrapped and twined into the shape of a featureless head, except for its grimacing mouth. The disgusting effigy burst into heretical flame and the Hell Devil came to life. 

A six fingered hand descended from the sky soundlessly, passing through the roof of the mall as it’s grip wrapped gently but inescapably around Alucard. In a blink, both had disappeared. 

————

Alucard awoke lying in a broken bathtub in a endless field of wild grass. Smashed bottles and loose bricks surrounded him and he stood up and surveyed his surroundings. Above him was an endless shifting mass of doors in place of the sky, every one of them giving off the scent of something dark and hungry behind them. So this is Hell, he’d arrived sooner than he’d expected. A tremendous roar could be heard in the distance, and Alucard saw as thousands of devils swarmed towards him. Beasts without faces, with insectoid limbs in every shape imaginable and unimaginable stormed towards him. The armies of Hell.

Alucard breathed out as the shadowy aura surrounded him began thrashing erratically, as though a hound trying to break its chain.

‘The Bird of Hermes is my name...eating my own wings to keep me tame....’

‘Release Restraint Level 0.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the first one that I’ve decided to write in two parts. The next one should be coming soonish, enjoy.


	5. Alucard vs Makima Part 2

Deep in the grassy fields of Hell itself, a host of devils ten thousand strong stormed towards a single man cast in black shadows. This was one of the only times so many devils had come together since the reign of the dreaded Chainsaw, but their ruler had made clear that this outsider was not to be suffered. 

Alucard stood, building his will. With a muffled rumbling, a black coffin covered in alchemical symbols emerged from the dirt. Blood leaked from it as it opened slowly revealing a bottomless void within. Darkness built in Alucard’s soul as every chain was broken. His body lost form, twisting into masses of darkness and flame, covered in mouths and eyes. The mass spread out, as though matching the lines of the charging devils. And then a dark army of familiars was released. 

Armoured vampires of the Millennium organisation, white clad Crusaders of the Church, charging knights of the Ottoman Empire. All bore forth in trampling waves towards the devils, thousands following thousands as they charged. The two lines broke into each other with a resonant crash as walls of infernal roaring bore forth. Utter chaos ensued.

German vampires flipped over tentacle strikes before smashing jaws with back hands, firing MG 42’s in perforating waves from the hip simultaneously. Whole platoons were petrified by the mere breath of the Stone Devil until Tubalcain Alhambra appeared behind it holding a single card, it’s body sliding apart into neat chunks. Silver bullets curved unfailingly in mid air, puncturing numerous devils one after the other, all from the musket of Rip Van Winkle. Insectoid devil claws tore through the Crusader’s armour like tissue paper while charging head long into their pike-rifle fire. Blood flowed by the gallon onto the floor.

From behind the clashing lines rode five hundred Ottoman knights on black horses, who’s armour gleamed despite the lack of light. At their centre leading was a face feared by men and devils alike, a creature born from the night nearly six centuries old. Clad in gunmetal armour that shone pink like torn flesh, with a tattered cape that seemed endlessly long rode Dracula himself, the Impaling Dragon.

Wordlessly he drew his golden jilted great sword with one hand and pointed it towards the undefended flank’s of the demonic army. The riders smashed through it like a fell hammer through glass and the devils were finished, what followed was a more a slaughter than a fight. The devils were smashed, cut, perforated and burned, and those that still clung to life were impaled upon poles seemingly generated from air. A screaming forest surrounded Dracula and his thousand fold men. The devils screamed and roared as though swearing revenge....until an odd aura could be felt. 

Utter silence followed, broken by the sound of crying. Dracula turned his head dispassionately to the impaled devils who were no longer angry, now just...terrified. They cried, those with limbs remaining appearing almost begging in their body language. Dracula would have scoffed if it wasn’t beneath him, these were monsters born of humanity’s greatest fears, yet now they showed more fear than anyone and at what? All he could hear was some frog croaking. Faster than God, all the light that could be seen vanished.

And every single familiar, devil, even Dracula himself lost both arms before he could blink.

Standing before the King was a profoundly odd creature, one that’s every aspect spoke of obscene malice, and much more that could not be understood. It’s legs were two desiccated human corpses joined at the arms, upon which was a grim pagoda of stacked bodies leading towards an emotionless horned head shaped almost like a pterodactyl skull. A cape seemingly made of blackness itself hung from its top most arms, and four heads stared out from its chest. It was not alive, it was something else. A killer that had plagued humanity for all time. The Darkness Devil. 

Dracula blinked. His arms weren’t regenerating and he didn’t know why. Taking on a grimace, waves more of familiars emerged from the shadows surrounding him as he back-pedalled towards his similarly neutralised soldiers. They seemed to die merely from the presence of the awful creature, punctures the size of watermelons appearing in some, others being sliced apart without resistance by an invisible blade. Shadowy arms burst from Dracula’s back, which he used to examine why his real ones were still severed. They painfully moved around inside the wound to pull out microscopic specks of blackness. Dracula frowned, it leaves small pieces of its flesh in wounds to prevent them from healing. Such a disgusting creature, and what unspeakable speed. He must kill it now. 

Dracula’s arms returned fully armoured, and he called forth many more familiars to replace the ones that Darkness had already silenced. He ordered a few to go to Millenniums vampires and remove their stoppers, their firepower would likely be needed. As it stood, the devil was running through his slaves like air, it’s arms coming over its shoulder sharpened to points heralding a burst of slashes dismembering thousands. Pikes broke before they ever got near it, and bullets seemed to be swallowed in its endless black aura. 

Dracula snapped his fingers and the Darkness Devil was flanked by four Tiger 1 heavy tanks. There was a rumble before the skeletal monster was engulfed in heavy shellfire, smoke rising up to obscure how it took the heavy barrage. It lifted to reveal the devil untouched, who’s hands came together in a fourfold prayer, it spoke in some unfashionable, heretical language. The tanks top doors shook before being blasted open by geysers of blood erupting from them. Low flying Messerschmitt Bf 109’s passed overhead the creature dropping endless bombs onto it, just so that it could look up at them knowingly. All the planes crashed simultaneously. 

Waves more families were cut down as Dracula weighed his options. He had a few more powerful ones, but they wouldn’t do much more than distract it for longer. He’d have to defeat it himself. But he did have a few tricks he could use still...

Like lightning, seven weapon hybrids appeared from the shadows, still wearing their black and white suits. They pulled their triggers before assaulting the Darkness Devil from all sides. This time it took minor scratches from them, before retaliating, a sound of ringing bells heralding each of them being split to pieces. But each of them got back up, some pulling their own triggers while others pulled their teammates if they were unable to. Their attacks did little, but hybrids had been an enemy of the Primal fears for ages, so they could hold it off.

The Darkness Devil bent over for a split second as it was hit in the back by a combined attack from Whip Woman and Bomb Girl. In an instant, blinding darkness overtook the battlefield as each hybrid stopped moving. When Dracula could see again, all his hybrids had been sliced apart irreparably, each of them bleeding every drop of blood they had, even more than their injuries should have caused. Darkness stood tall, a ceremonial katana adorned with bells floating beside it. Not enough yet.

A silver bullet struck the devil head on before curving around and piercing it several times. Rip Van Winkle split in two vertically, her glasses becoming two monocles. A ring of cards surrounded Darkness before slamming down, bringing it to its knees. Tubalcain Alhambra was instantly reduced to misty pink liquid. In a flash, Dracula appeared before the devil, swinging his great sword down at its head, only for it to stop in mid air. Darkness’s finger reached out to point at him and Dracula’s armour shattered.....only to reveal Alucard in his black suit running across the floor before leaping at its torso, his arm held back like a weapon. It rippled with strengthened muscle before he adopted his knife hand and lanced it through one of the devils heads, burrowing through grim undead flesh before reaching the heart of Darkness and crushing it. Blood poured from the creature as it moaned silently before it dropped dead to the floor. The first Primal Fear to have ever been killed. 

Alucard inspected his blackened hand as he saw a woman in a long black skirt walk softly beside the unholy corpse. She was quiet and calm, but the zipper along her face and odd mass of spiked legs underneath let Alucard know she wasn’t human. 

She spoke quietly ‘thank you for defeating the Darkness Devil, you’ve helped my masters backup plan along massively.’

And then her face unzipped, leaving hordes and hordes of mice to storm out. Her body flopped onto the floor like a loose sheet, as though there was nothing inside as the mice quickly surrounded the Darkness Devils body and began eating at it. Thousands of tiny nibbles as the body was quickly reduced to nothing. Alucard stood there stunned at such a bizarre display. After the body disappeared the mice swirled together like a whirlpool was growing around them. The tower of mice grew higher and higher almost as tall as a person. There was the sound of a bell.

And every single familiar Alucard had summoned was decapitated simultaneously. 

The floor was drenched in blood for miles, it rising several inches off the floor as every single familiar fell headless to the floor. From the swarm of mice, brandishing the bell covered Sword of Darkness before her, stood Makima. She still wore her suit, but her jacket was worn on her shoulders with its sleeves flowing behind her as she stepped towards the No Life King. Her head now sprouted two bone horns, taken from her consumption of the Darkness Devil that was ringed by a halo of brain matter. Her smile, if anything, had only grown bigger.

‘Well it was regrettable that I lost my immortality contract to do it, but I’ve finally taken the power of a Primal Fear. Thank you for your assistance Alucard.’

He wasn’t willing to humour her with a response. Without hesitation he drew Casull and Jackal from within himself and aimed them both towards the Control Devil. 

‘Drop them. Kneel.’

Alucard’s felt physically ill as his body disobeyed his orders and did so, kneeling to someone other than Integra for the first time in centuries.

‘In honesty, the reason why I couldn’t order you before was because one of my favourite films is about you. Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula, released 1992. Its just so visually stunning and grotesque, I couldn’t help but respect its subject matter. But I’ve gotten my fill of you now.’

What was she talking about, thought Alucard as he struggled and failed to move.

‘You told me that I was no more than a corpse walking, and yet here you are: a corpse kneeling.’ 

She walked over to him, before taking the sword in both hands, the bells ringing ominously. His mind flashed back to the last time he was in this position, then he had been a mere mortal. This was worse. 

‘Do you have any last words. You can speak.’

‘I swore that no monster such as yourself would ever defeat me. I have only been bested by one man. What are you?’

‘I am human.’

Alucard blinked.

‘Well, not literally. In truth I am the Devil of Control but I have dedicated every aspect of my life to humanity. I have lived as a human, I have acted as a human, I am surrounded by humans. My life goal is to erase all that plagues humanity, to bring the species lasting happiness for the first time, to remove the shackles of Death, War and Hunger. I am willing to die for this goal, and what is more human than that?’

‘.....’

‘Goodbye Alucard. May you serve humanity in a more pleasant way in your next life.’

The Blade of Darkness came down in a flash and severed the Kings head in a single swing. The second, and final, execution he would suffer in his existence. His body disappeared to be used by Makima later, and that was the last that was seen of him. 

‘Hell Devil, bring me back.’

As the hand reached down to return her to the world, Makima pondered the long and terrible life of the Vampire King and hoped she would affect as much change in the world in her reign.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. Writing Makima is very fun, since her ability to use others bodies basically means I can write whatever I want from all of Chainsaw Man. I hope you enjoy this and whatever I write next.


	6. Gojo Satoru vs Uchiha Itachi

Gojo quietly walked home alongside the road, flashing headlights from blaring cars his only companion. He was beginning to regret sending Ichiji home without him impulsively, he probably could have won quick enough while protecting him. A shame. Without thinking he passed into a long, narrow underpass. He stopped all of a sudden seeing someone standing before him on the other end of the pass. A dark haired man, fairly shorter and younger than Gojo, wearing a midnight black coat adorned with bloody clouds. His face was sullen, set with deep lines, and yet appeared like iron. A headband deliberately slashed through oversaw his eyes, overtaken that they were with crimson pinwheels.

‘Hello there, you must be Gojo Satoru.’ 

‘That’s me, can’t say I recognise you though. You lost man?’

‘I am not, in fact you’re exactly the person I’ve been trying to find. I’ve been tasked with recruiting you into our organisation.’

‘I’m going to have to turn you down flat out. I’m not interested in any job offers at the minute. Quite like my job at the minute.’

‘I see. Well I was ordered to bring you back one way or the other. Demonic Illusion: Shackle Stakes.’

The blindfolded man froze as he felt an immense agony overtook him. He was completely paralysed, four giant rusty iron stakes pierced his body. His body twitched all over, his pain tolerance far exceeded even the most hardy of sorcerers but there was something beyond this that made him feel dizzy. He flexed his cursed energy hard and -was back in the underpass, unharmed. His head was throbbing from the effort but he wouldn’t move as though to convey weakness.

‘You slipped that past my Infinity,’ declared Gojo as he removed his hands from his pockets, ‘let’s see if you can do it again.’

‘’I’ll do whatever I have to. Despair now if you wish, or save it for later. Nothing you do will make any difference to me.’ replied Itachi steadily, before he crossed his index and middle fingers on both hands into a seal.

‘Shadow Clone Jutsu’

Three more Itachi’s appeared in front of the original in a puff of smoke, each as foreboding as the first. Gojo remained calm, analysing the technique. They were fragile, but held significant energy. They would like hold his offence but not any prospective endurance the original had. Boring. The three of them moved swiftly, unleashing a barrage of kunai and shuriken from their sleeves, one lighting the rests on fire using his breath. The projectile barrage stopped short of Gojo, hovering in place briefly before dropping to the floor

Gojo clapped his hands together, and after a short period appeared behind the original. Teleportation wasn’t usually helpful in fights, but they rarely expected it. Gojo raised his hand ready to put Itachi to sleep with a pressure point strike, only to find himself standing in a pit of lightless hellfire. The black flames didn’t find their way past the Infinity between them and Gojo but their heat was inescapable. They had already rendered the concrete and earth beneath them molten, steam billowing from the water pipes they devoured instantly. Molten rock from the walls dripped onto Gojo’s barrier. Itachi was gone, like he was never there in the first place. Even more, Gojo hadn’t sensed that fire beforehand, so he must have had time to predict his move, place it there as a trap and disappear. Impressive. 

Gojo held his breath, even the air around him was disappearing instantly. Limitless was powerful but it wouldn’t protect him from asphyxiation. All of a sudden, the three clones burst in after him, each of them blowing fire balls at him while standing far from the previously cast black flames. They were practically ignored by his Infinity, and Gojo moved forward to take each of them out. As he neared one..it burst in a flash of light and ringing noise. Amplified by his enhanced senses, especially sight, Gojo was disoriented by this, and therefore was unable to react as it happened twice more. 

His head was throbbing with pain, unable to think with the noise while blinded by the light. He couldn’t afford to be stuck in a narrow hallway like this unable to see what his opponent was doing, especially when they could attack from both sides. He clapped again and appeared outside. On the grassy field 50 meters away from the underpass, was close to 20 shadow Itachi’s standing around Gojo. Each of them barely stood out in the darkness, aside from 20 pairs of spinning red disks. 

Gojo was already sick of this, he wanted to end it quickly without killing Itachi. Information on what could be a group of powerful curse users would be vital, who knows if they’ve visited anyone else at this time. Gojo took in the sea of twisting eyes and reached towards his blindfold to reveal his own. As his celestial blue eyes, his pride and burden were unleashed, the alabaster haired man crossed his fingers.

‘Domain Expansion: Immeasurable Void.’

A glorious universe full of stars and nebulas and life, dominated by a black hole and splashed over with white appeared and disappeared in an instant. Gojo had perfected this technique since fighting the Disaster Curses, now he was able to perfectly calculate the amount of time the ability should be active to deliver the desired results. He wanted to distract Itachi without destroying his mind. An activation of 0.125767 seconds, resulting in Itachi’s mock clone army vanishing in smoke, their fragile minds shattering instantly at the ‘limitless’ flow of information. 

Gojo took off running, building cursed energy in his fist, his Limitless briefly destabilised by the Domain Expansion. He had a good feeling about this punch. But what he expected was not what he saw. Instead of a dumbfounded Itachi paralysed in place, was a ultra dense ribcage composed of orange flame. It surrounded Itachi, and judging by his focused expression, protected him from the attack entirely. Gojo slid on the ground underneath a retaliatory fireball, before getting back to his feet without losing momentum. Almost there, his fist was cocked back. Itachi released a storm of knives, but Gojo’s enhanced perception allowed him to quickly find the space in between them and dive through. His fist hurtled forwards....

BLACK FLASH

Black lightning flew from the point of contact with the dead centre of Itachi’s construct. The Uchiha slayer was sent careening away, the front part of his construct shattered utterly. Limitless returned to Gojo a second too late, he grumbled internally, or that Black Flash would have practically bisected him. Wait he needed him for questioning still. Still a waste of a flash, thought Gojo as he left the ground and flew after the hurtling Akatsuki member. 

———

Itachi tumbled mid air, still encased in his rapidly crumbling ribcage construct, until with a flip he righted himself, still moving towards the ground. He considered his options. He’d found leaked information on his domain expansion ability, it worked similar to genjutsu in that it attacked someone’s mental faculties rather than their physical ones. Because of that he’d been able to protect himself using Susanoo, though his eyes were streaming blood as white spots slowly began to cover his vision. He was running out of time. 

Before Itachi could release the Susanoo, his black clad opponent languidly flew overhead, looking down on him. The mans fingers were raised, in a sign similar to Itachi’s own basic seals. A swirling force built on top of them, compressing and recompressing until its pressure grew astronomically, scarlet light emerging from the void. A projectile attack, Itachi grimaced, a strong one at that. In an instant his ribcage grew, skeletal arms and a face appearing from the flames, before muscles like worms seeped over every part. It’s face framed by rope like locks of hair, it’s two left arms held their hands parallel to each other, a trio of whirring sickle beads appearing between. 

‘Jutsushiki Reversal: Red.’

‘Yasaka Magatama.’

Gojo gestured with his fingers as the tremendous force expanded towards Itachi, who in return tossed the spinning disk of beads. The two projectiles clashed with a deafening sound, grass flew up everywhere as both combatants lost sight of each other in the massive cloud of smoke and flame. Itachi’s Susanoo dropped, as he attempted to catch his breath. Close to two dozen shadow clones, repairing and building a half body Susanoo, Amaterasu and several genjutsu. This Gojo was seriously strong to draw this much out of him, he’d have to defeat him quickly. 

He awaited the strongest sorcerer to attack, but to no avail. Peering up at the sky, he saw the man looking down at him. The contrast between his black tracksuit and white hair made him a striking figure, but the enigmatic look in his treasured eyes and merciless smile was what put Itachi on edge. Wordlessly, the Uchiha pointed at the sorcerer in order to put him under a genjutsu. But there was no change, aside from an amused turn of Gojo’s head. The Six Eyes unleashed would not fail to see through any paltry Genjutsu. 

Itachi sighed, Tsukuyomi would be required. He quickly constructed a plan in his head. The limitless man seemed to be quite intelligent, normally he wouldn’t fall into such a trap. But if Itachi wrenched his pride...... His outstretched hand retracted his finger before turning, his fingers lifting in a mocking gesture. Come on.

Gojo face darkened at the Uchiha’s audacity, and almost immediately appeared to his side, his fingers striking towards his temple for a finishing blow. Only to find his hands brushing feathers, as Itachi’s body dissolved into a murder of crows. 

Itachi noticed the sorcerer growing more irritated as the shinobi reappeared in the middle of the nearby town, all but a few of the people having already scattered. Itachi pulled out a kunai briefly, examining his eyes in the perfectly polished blades reflection. Got it. Gojo landed opposite Itachi, with a tired expression.

‘What is this, you trying to bring civilians into this now? Between this and all the running away, you must be a real coward.’ 

‘An insignificant reason observation. Have you ever lost before Gojo Satoru?’

Gojo simply scoffed in response, incredulous at the idiotic question.

‘Then I shall be your first. Prepare yourself.’

Gojo’s already frustrated expression turned outright incensed. A clone Itachi set up ahead of time stood behind Gojo on top of a nearby building. The original Itachi launched through a stream of hand signs in near synchrony to the clone. 

‘Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!’

‘Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!’

The ball of flame and water missile collie over Gojo’s head, washing the battlefield in an obscuring cloud of steam. This should be enough to set him off, thought Itachi. Indeed Gojo moved erratically through the cloud looking for the Uchiha. He shrugged off a probing genjutsu, before turning towards the source. Itachi summoned up his skeletal Susanoo in preparation before it drew a flaming sword. It swung downwards, parting the steam as it raced towards the white haired man. It stopped dead in its tracks, Gojo not having even turned to look.

Before Itachi could react, Gojo was there in front of him, both hands gripping each side of his ribcage. Impossible, there was no way he was going to... 

Without sound or even visible effort, Gojo Satoru wrenched open the Susanoo’s ribcage and stepped inside. He visibly drank in Itachi’s surprised expression, his own face warped with deranged satisfaction.

‘It’s over!’

His fingers crossed again. 

‘Domain Expansion: Immeasurable Void!’

Again the universe itself spread before Itachi’s eyes, crossed with white. His mind flooded with information. There are 6 grams of fiber in a shredded wheat biscuit, the Batmobile caught eight flat tires, there are 340 million apples in the world, there are...... His mind was paralysed, he couldn’t move or hear or smell or see what was in front of him. He was totally at Gojo Satoru’s mercy.

Said Gojo Satoru slowly walked towards him, reaching out his hand to finally knock the genjutsu master out. Only for Itachi’s own hand to shoot out and grab his wrist. As if resuscitated from death, Itachi recovered consciousness before smiling at Gojo’s shocked face. It worked. He’d used that genjutsu of the ordinary people earlier to see if there was anyway to protect someone inside Gojo’s domain. Direct contact with its caster would nullify its effects, and he couldn’t protect himself with Infinity inside the Limitless itself. Itachi had used the kunai to reflect his own eyes, to cast a genjutsu on himself. I the case he was caught in the domain. It had taken over his body where his own mind couldn’t. This was victory. Sharingan met the Six Eyes.

His left eye mutated into a bloody pinwheel as he made direct eye contact.

‘Hahahaha. Fancy seeing you here.’

Gojo tried to pull his hand away, his other coming up to sever Itachi’s at the wrist. Utterly futile. 

‘Tsukuyomi.’ 

All colour disappeared from Gojo’s world as he was sucked into another. 

——— 

Gojo awoke in an inverted world with a crimson sky and black field. He couldn’t move, his arms and legs lashed to the cross. He tried blasting them with his Infinity, break out with his strength, see through the illusion with his Six Eyes. They wouldn’t even budge. Itachi was standing there, his jailer cast in the same shadow as everything else. Gojo attempted to talk, to mock Itachi, but even his ability to talk had been robbed of him.

‘Welcome to my own Domain. In the other world, it is things like strength, technique and intelligence that decides the winners and losers. Things like time, causality and the laws of physics have meaning. Not here. The only thing that decides what happens here is me. You claim to have never lost, it seems I will have to catch you up to your rightful place. Suffer, and grow wise to the true state of the world.’ 

Gojo wasn’t crucified anymore, he was lying defeated and shredded on the floor, the smug face of Fushiguro Toji looking down at him. He put every scrap of power he had into performing the Reverse technique, only for it to fail. He slipped into the sleep of death, not knowing of Riko or Geto’s fate. 

Gojo was barely able to stand, his body mauled and half devoured by curse spirits. His former best friend stood in front of him, but there was a curious scar on his forehead. He attempted one final charge, only to be massacred one final time.

His body was burned to a crisp by Jogo, the volcano spirit taking in the scent of his charred skin and rendered fats.

Hanami’s roots worked through his body, his lifeblood flowing down the curse’s appendages.

That patchwork spirit Mahito that had tormented his student so, a mere touch bloating and twisting his body beyond his limits until his soul burst. An agonising death unlike any other. 

Choso Kamo’s blood bullet pierced him through, a feeling of existential cold overtaking him as his own lifeblood seeped out. 

Ryomen Sukuna mocked him as he pulled away his lower half, his students own face mocking and spitting upon him after an easy victory. 

For hours, days, months, every battle Satoru had ever fought was reversed, every scenario reached its worst possible outcome. Every mission was a failure. It was a utter reversal of the very nature of Gojo Satoru. All inbetween more.....standard torture sessions with Itachi. He endeavoured to find the most creative and efficient ways to exceed Gojo’s pain tolerance. Everything was falling away.

Any man would be crushed by this. Indeed, the worlds strongest sorcerer had long since snapped from the eldritch inhumanity of the nightmare realm. His Six Eyes enhanced perception had only betrayed him, lengthening and enhancing his suffering via his impeccable senses. 

All of a sudden the world disappeared, bringing them back to reality. His Immeasurable Void fell. It hadn’t even been ten seconds in real time. Gojo staggered backwards, his mind reeling. All that suffering wasn’t even real. An infinity of trauma had been unleashed upon him in such a way it could barley be said to have happened at all. Most, any man would snap under such a realisation, surrender himself to death. 

Gojo Satoru was not a man. He was the most divine sorcerer of his age.

Itachi jumped back from shock, hurling a pair of kunai at the sorcerer. Gojo’s hand snapped up to catch one, the other stabbing his shoulder up to the hilt with a wet thunk. Itachi’s already near blind and bloody left eye once again cast Tsukuyomi, sending invasive chakra through Gojo’s pupil racing down his optic nerves into his brain. But now that Gojo was no longer suprised, his Six Eyes gave him the opportunity to react. The chakra moved faster than lightning. But Gojo had time.

Itachi looked on horrified as Gojo raised his hand, extended two fingers, and drove them through his temple, severing his optic nerve before the Tsukuyomi could take place. Half his sight went totally black and pain throbbed through his temple. It wasn’t enough to stop him. 

In a flash, his other hand shot out towards Itachi’s face. Itachi’s hands came up to stop it, but they simply stopped before they could touch it. Inconsequential. Gojo’s hand snapped back, claiming Itachi’s famed left eye in a spray of cracked bone and black blood. No more Tsukuyomi, he thought as he savoured crushing it between his fingers.

Infinity removed the kunai as reverse cursed energy flowed through Gojo’s body, healing his puncture wound and reattaching his optic nerve good as new. Itachi’s hand clenched over the gaping hole in his face as it weeped blood, there was now more red on his face that exposed skin. Itachi backed away, not nearly fast enough for Gojo not to keep him in range. His hand held up a kunai in a futile block. Gojo simply shattered the knife with an elbow strike, utterly ruining Itachi’s hand in the process. As the Uchiha’s fingers crumbled, Gojo raised his fingers to his other arm and used the smallest Blue he could. A microscopic void opened on Itachi’s sleeved hand, compressing his arm and shattering the bone before disappearing. It hung limp, blood dripping out the black sleeve, useless. No more Jutsu. 

Itachi summoned up the ribcage just as Gojo’s foot crashed into it in a penalty kick, shattering all the buildings glass as the Limitless improved strength sent Itachi’s skidding back, barely able to stay upright. It was time to finish this. Gojo he flared all the curse power he could bring to bear before clapping both hands together, one forming Red, the other Blue as he combined and condensed them together. Beyond being destructive, he held annihilation itself between his fingers. Violet-white lightning crashed around him. 

In a single desperate measure, Itachi cast the black flames of Ameterasu on the road ahead of him and even on own his Susanoo’s ribcage as it built up. Bones, muscles, skin, armour. It brought an oddly beautiful shield to bear. It was different from chakra or cursed energy in a way Gojo could not place his finger on. Irrelevant. He brought his arm up to aim while steadying it with the other. All the energy built up within him was getting dangerous, even for him. His hand pointed at Itachi, his front two fingers curled under his thumb.

‘Hahahahahaha! Goodbye Itachi Uchiha!’

His fingers flicked outwards. 

‘Maximum Output: Hollow Technique: Purple!’

The full power of Gojo Satoru was released. The entire downtown block was erased from existence, until not even its dust remained. Everything in its blast range was shredded down to its last atom, unable to stand up to the assault of the imaginary mass for even an instant. Beyond destruction. Oblivion. Before Gojo was a black crater almost a mile long, every element gone. It was almost featureless, aside from the smoke that had appeared from the combusting air.

A pop in the distance and a half glance indicated that Itachi’s last clone had disappeared. That confirmed it, the Uchiha was dead. Gojo turned around to walk back to the school, expecting to be yelled at for the devastation he’d caused. It felt odd to even think that, the fight had lasted a couple minutes at best, but from his perception it had been years since he’d first seen Itachi in the underpass. He wondered if-

Gojo’s back was pierced with a gigantic sword of liquid light. 

Instantly, he felt all his energy and fighting spirit drain out of him, down the sword. What was once imperious strength turned to futile rage. He turned and looked behind him. The upper body of a legendary red warrior stood there. Clad in robes and armour, two golden eyes peeled from the mouth of a tengu, who’s nose had become a impromptu horn. In its left hand was the same glorious shield he had seen before he unleashed his attack, none the worse for wear. In one of its right hands was a gourd for drinking sake, likely the source of its third hands weapon. Itachi stood there within, his eyes more white than red, his arms hanging lifelessly, at the very last thread of his energy.

‘How!?!?’ roared Gojo as he felt his body being liquified and sucked along the blade slowly.

‘This,’ began Itachi ‘is my final trump card. Once fully constructed....my Susanoo wields two sacred spirit weapons. The Ten-Handed Totsuka Blade that can seal anything it pierces, even a god. The other is the Yata Mirror, that can perfectly defend against any attack, regardless of its properties. With the two-‘

‘I don’t mean that you bastard! How did you get through my Infinity, nothing on earth can do that!’

‘As I said, it is a spirit weapon. It’s not of this earth. Regardless of your opinion, your Limitless technique can only affect things in this realm. No other.’ 

‘But the clone-‘

‘I ordered it to disperse itself if it looked like I was dead. You were too high on your own power and pride to notice my bluff.’

The Uchiha’s expression softened.

‘But this was my last chance. I don’t have enough chakra to do a single other thing, I can barely maintain this Susanoo another couple seconds. If you had dodged my thrust I would have won. Farewell Gojo Satoru, may your next dream be a more pleasant one.’ 

Gojo Satoru was soundless as the Totsuka Blade absorbed him into its length before it was plunged into the gourd, forever sealing him into a world of drunken dreams. 

Itachi staggered as his Susanoo fell. His chakra was at its absolute limit. His left eye was destroyed and his arms were crippled beyond standard repair. A pyrrhic victory at best. Unless.....

With no one else to hear, Itachi chuckled for the first time in years. He’d set a trap before releasing Gojo and killing him finally. Imagine, an Uchiha with the Six Eyes. What a novel concept. He trudged away towards his new goal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading. If you recall, Madara was able to use his Susanoo after both his eyes were taken in the War arc, so that’s how Itachi uses his after Gojo destroys his Sharingan. This one was hard to write, I haven’t done these in a while and it’s a complicated fight. See you next time


	7. Toji Fushiguro vs Quanxi

The elevator stopped almost silently, aside from an exciting ring as the doors slid open, befitting of the fancy hotel it was situated within. Toji Fushiguro stepped out into the airy lobby and grimaced as he saw his agent sitting on the coach, smoke drifting from between his fingers. 

‘Waste of time, why do you always drag me to these sitting ducks?’ groaned Toji as he made his way to the coach. 

‘Money’s money, anyway didn’t the bodyguard have cursed energy?’

‘Barely, wouldn’t have made Grade 3 out in the real world. I didn’t even have to get out the Worm.’ 

‘That’s a shame. Want a go?’ offered Toji’s agent as he plucked the cigarette from between his lips and gestured.

‘Fuck no, get a new one out.’

‘But it’s my last one...’ groaned the middle man even as he reached into his pocket for the pack.

All the hairs on the back of Toji’s neck stood up. Without thinking his hand slipped into his belt and whipped out a combat knife, turning all the way around to barely catch a blade in a burst of sparks. Faster still a white and black blur flashed over him, skidding to a halt across the spacious lobby. Toji didn’t even have to look to see that the knife he was holding had shattered uselessly. His agent looked back at him bemused, his mouth quirking as if to ask what was going on.

His head slid cleanly from his neck before the words could even escape his mouth. 

Toji’s opponent revolved, facing him. A practically dressed woman, wearing a black sleeveless shirt and black trousers held up by a simple belt around her waist. White hair pulled back into a ponytail framed her face, covered as it was by a dark eyepatch. Compared to his own specially made, tightly fitting t-shirt and white baggy trousers held up by a black belt, he felt overdressed. She looked at him without interest, as if observing a piece of meat for carving. There were three sheathes attached to her waist, each holding a golden sword with a curved handle, like the one in her hand.

Fast, faster than him even, Toji would admit. She was definitely strong too, able to clash with him without issue. He wouldn’t escape her without a brawl. All without cursed energy too. If it wasn’t for his agent lying dead before him, Toji would smile. A familiar coolness spread through his body from his neck down. His desire to fight.

‘That guy was paying me you know. Unless you’ve got something to make up for that, this isn’t gonna go well for you’ remarked Toji, still analysing the woman. He assumed a casual looking stance at he readied himself to retch. Good thing he’d emptied his stomach in preparation for this job, unnecessary that it was. Something struck Toji about the way the woman looked, her attitude. Something he’d heard in a half ignored lecture by his agent a while ago....

‘Y’know based of those swords and that eyepatch, you must be Quanxi, the First Hunter. Quite a big deal in our profession I’m told, not that I put much stock in that. You must be here for me, mind telling me who’s hired you? Might have to pay them a visit later.’

If the implication of her losing rankled her at all, she didn’t show it. She was serious and focused, but not worried, almost frowning. A worker before a fighter, like Toji wished he could be. Before he accepted her silence she spoke calmly and evenly in a deep tone.

‘Naoya Zenin ordered your death, reason given that you were a disgrace to the Zenin Clan. You might want to know that he paid double my standard fee for your death, Toji Zenin.’

‘It’s Fushiguro. I’ve had enough. Would you like to start or should I?’

Before Quanxi could answer Toji shook his leg a certain way, a brown wrapped sphere falling from his trouser leg to the floor where he kicked it to her, it bursting into smoke as he did so.

———

Quanxi wasn’t too phased about the smoke, obviously she was used to fighting in low visibility conditions. Which is why it didn’t impress her when she sensed Toji coming at her from her right side. Did he seriously think she hadn’t accommodated at all for her lack of an eye? She grasped her sword in both hands before turning and slashing back at him. They met in another burst of sparks. 

Interesting, he wielded a heavy looking broadsword with a fur covered tsuba. It was probably even heavier than it looked considering it was holding back her own blade. More intimidating was the bizarre brown worm creature wrapped around his waist peeking over her shoulder, it’s hair covered body leading to a disgusting face, like a mockery of a human baby. Hmph. Quanxi didn’t want to waste anymore time with him, she’d crush him quickly.

With a shift of her weight Toji’s sword fell aside, and Quanxi opened up with a blistering series of slashes. Her blade became a silver fan as it blurred, making full use of her strength even as it cracked and wore down. No matter how fast she went, Toji managed to catch her blade at the last minute on his, or move in such a way that the resulting cut was too shallow to matter. As a result, his body was slowly covered in thin spots of blood, his movements unimpeded. 

Quanxi tired of this and brought down her sword hard on Toji’s shattering it but bringing it low enough that she could disarm him just by raising her knee quickly. She lashed out with a hard right straight punch, aimed squarely at his nose, only for him to react by ducking just underneath. With a jolt he pushed back up, his forehead colliding with her own nose and cracking it, dazing her briefly. His worms head curled down beside his hip like a samurai’s sheath and coughed out a much more traditional sword handle.

Quanxi leaped back just as the katana cleared the sheath, a shallow cut across her chest tearing her shirt more than her flesh. Toji resheathed the sword as she unsheathed her own remaining two, pushing her nose back into place with a spurt of blood at the same time. While Quanxi was ready to escalate her own attacks, Toji chose a different plan of attack. His worm curled up till it’s head poked over his shoulder before releasing an immense swarm of creatures like smoke. Her blades lashed out in scissoring arcs, cutting down any that got close to her before she realised what they were. Fly Heads, harmless creatures but annoying. 

She’d never seen them harnessed tactically like this however, the swarm flew around Toji like a black cloud, not only obscuring his movements but also any noise he might make due to the incessant buzzing of the spirits. A 9mm bullet flew out of the cloud, clearly having been fired by him. Quanxi barely moved, simply twisting her shoulder to avoid it. She’d be offended at the simplicity of the attack if it wasn’t immediately followed up by a lightning quick attack she barely deflected with her swords. She caught sight of it as it pulled back, a wooden handled kurisagama attached to a silver chain. She wouldn’t wait for it to attack again. She kicked off the ground before running around the entire room, picking up enough speed that moving to and up wall was effortless. She ran rings around the entire room, doing her best to be unpredictable, waiting for her chance to strike. 

———  
Toji didn’t need sight or hearing to track Quanxi, he’d caught her smell during their clashes earlier. With that he’d be good for tracking her, even if she’d taken to the walls. His advantage in this battle would be his superior senses and arsenal, hers her speed and experience. Toji spun the chain scythe over head, loosing it and pulling it back sharply every now and again. She was moving erratically and unpredictably, but he was sure to get her measure soon. The scythe revolved around him, the next one would catch her as she ran into its path. 

Wait, she’s going up, Toji realised too late as he cast out the chain, it futilely hitting nothing. Like light, Quanxi burst through the cloud of Fly-Heads, both blades coming down on Toji like twin guillotines. Just barely he managed to dodge back through the cloud, suffering two parallel cuts to his chest before whistling sharply, all the Fly-Heads collapsing onto Quanxi as if to immobilise her. He drew his katana again holding it to his hip before pausing in awe. 

Quanxi’s arms weren’t even visible, looping slashes interchanging seamlessly with quick cuts and jabs struck down multiple Fly-Heads per attack. As a result, the cloud was totally dispersed in mere seconds, leaving Toji no time to find an advantageous position or pull a different weapon. Her dispassionate expression hadn’t changed. Very impressive. This was getting damn good.

He wouldn’t cede the advantage though, lashing out with another quickdraw slash aimed at her neck, only for her to catch it using her left blade before retaliating with her right. A combination of his best impression of New Shadow Style’s defensive techniques and his own innate reactions kept him from accruing much damage, but he was losing ground all the while. Her two sword style was vicious, able to defend with one sword while attacking with the other left her with little openings, and attempts to cross her up just failed with her switching which hand did what without any wasted movement. If this kept up Toji would lose soon.

His scarred mouth pushed into an excited grin, he drew his sword one final time before flipping the sheath over and grasping it more strongly, a mirror to Quanxi’s own two swords. A distraction as he whistled in a low tone for his worm to spit out his own favourite weapon, the circular handle with a ring on the end letting him know it was ready. As she dashed to his side to strike at his neck, he caught one sword on the katana sheath, the blade sinking deep into the splintered wood, and the other on his own sword. Perfect, Toji moved his head back as if to headbutt Quanxi again, to which she subtly lowered her own head so that if he did his own nose would crash into her skull. A bluff for Toji’s real move, to hook her ankle with his foot and bring it forward, throwing her ever so slightly off balance. 

Toji dropped his sheath, her sword still lodged in it, and pulled out the Inverted Spear, its familiar weight and grip fitting perfectly into his hand. The blade scraped her shoulder as he lashed out with a stab aimed at her heart that she ducked to avoid. She dropped the sword stuck in the sheath as her hand touched the ground, before her foot lashed out, kicking the Inverted Spear far away. Toji was once again surprised by her speed but wouldn’t lose his cool, again moving away to draw another weapon from the worm. Playful Cloud maybe....

‘Not again’

Quanxi threw her remaining sword as fast as she could, it catching the Worm in the throat as the first section of Playful Cloud cleared its throat. The creature made a couple gurgling noises as it went limp, falling from Toji’s shoulder and slowly disintegrating. Unwilling to give up in spite of the crippling loss, he quickly searched the battlefield for another weapon to use against Quanxi.

Only to see her rise to her feet, assume an offensive wide legged stance with both hands open and towards him. A silent challenge to hand to hand combat. He grinned, this fight kept getting better. He met her stance with his own, fists raised and knees squared, left in front of right.

The Sorcerer Killer and First Devil Hunter squared for a brief moment, before exploding into a flurry of movement.

——— 

Fighting with no more than her fists and feet was probably the talent Quanxi was most proud of, though she wouldn’t openly admit it. She remembered Kishibe excitedly saying after a sparring match that she could beat the entire planet in a fistfight once, though she felt he was simply trying to make his own loss to her seem less embarrassing. She’d never lost a fight like this, and she had no intention of doing so in the future. 

This wouldn’t be any exception. Her hands swatted Fushiguro’s own punches out of the air without strain, always there no matter if he was trying a jab, a hook or an uppercut. Any kick he tried was checked by her simply lifting her leg up to catch it quickly. Even the occasional high kick was caught and pushed back down. This was merely a warm up compared to what was to come, but Quanxi was dominating it none the less. 

Without warning, Toji lashed out with a wild haymaker to her blind side. Quanxi easily slipped out of the way, her own extended fist slamming into his jaw. What should have been a knock out blow merely pushed Toji back slightly, his own right leg lashing out with a painful but ignorable kick to her right ankle. He followed up his haymaker with another punch she slipped underneath, before launching three quick strikes to his side, cracking his ribs and deeply bruising his skin. She leaned away from a retaliatory backhand before venturing on a further right kick to the ribs that would collapse his lungs.

Quanxi felt her momentum be arrested as Toji managed to trap her leg with his arm before her kick could reach him. He again kicked her right ankle, damaging it further but not destabilising it. He’d need to hit harder if he wanted to throw her off. With a twist of her trapped ankle she slipped her leg out of his grasp. Instead of assuming another stance, Quanxi dropped to her hands before revolving, her foot swinging into Toji’s jaw in a single clean movement, before spinning again and landing her heel in his stomach, forcing the air out of his lungs. She flawlessly transitioned into a half-kneeling position, her fist slamming into his solar plexus and further winding him before her hands reached up and around the back of his head. Locking his head in place, her foot on the ground launched up, bringing her knee exploding into his nose. Blood splashed even onto her own face, painting over the blood from her own broken nose. 

Quanxi pulled back her knee once more to finish him, only for his fist to shoot out in an overhand blow that connected with her temple, causing her to let go in shock. In spite of the obvious pain he must have been feeling, he managed to counter in time. He didn’t cede the advantage jabbing at her ribs before launching a third kick to her right ankle, the pain and instability in it growing more than Quanxi could ignore. She broke out of her own daze and further pushed herself, striking with quick combinations that kept Toji on the defensive. Jab, jab, hook. Jab, elbow, side kick. Overhand, knee, finger strike....

She pushed Toji onto the defensive quickly, pushing him to the back of the hotel lobby. In anger, he pushed back her using his hands before spreading his arms wide and pushing forward to grapple. Quanxi smashed both elbows into his forearms before they touched her waist and pushed him back off of her with a simple push kick. A perfect opportunity to finish this. She threw an explosive right hook that connected square with his jaw. But that was just a prelude to the left high kick she combined it with that struck his temple like a bomb. He went limp as expected, even Kishibe had never stayed standing after this combination. 

Except he stayed standing. Too late, Quanxi realised what he’d done. He’d tilted his head just so that it connected with the denser bone at the front of his head, while moving his head towards it to negate some of the force. Before she could correct her mistake his shin slammed into her right ankle one final time, this time finally throwing her off balance. She tumbled down, putting her face level with his cocked right hand.

Said right hand extended it’s thumb before ramming it up to the second joint in her remaining eye socket. 

——— 

Hand to hand wasn’t really Toji’s specialty. He was a good counter puncher and he was obviously much faster and stronger than most people he fought, but it didn’t come naturally to him. If he had his choice he would always go for a blade. What he was good at was creating and exploring weaknesses, regardless of how he was fighting. 

Weaknesses like being one eye gouge away from total blindness. Quanxi stumbled around as her hand reached towards her eyepatch. Some kind of hidden weapon or technique, it didn’t matter. His grin splitting his face, Toji slammed his elbow into her collarbone, immobilising the reaching arm before his foot stomped hard on her kneecap,brutally inverting her leg. He kicked her remaining hand out of the way, before catching sight of one of her discarded blades nearby. In less than two seconds he held it, testing it by swiping it at her other hand reaching for her eyepatch, severing three of her fingers with just a flick of the wrist. He slashed the sword across her stomach, sending her intestines spilling out like a nest of eels before striking it once more across her throat, opening it in a bloody display. He finished his visceral onslaught against the devil hunter by reversing his grip and placing his other hand on the butt of the sword, before ramming it hard into the woman’s heart, pinning her to the floor.

She lied there a broken, bloody pile, every part of her body somewhat torn up. Toji thought such an end was only appropriate for someone who’d caused him such trouble. He wiped his teary eyes from all the hits to his nose and adjusted, walking back to inspect the remains of the Worm. 

His senses screamed again for him to turn back, he spun in place, his hand coming out to catch an...arrow? Was there someone else here? He looked ahead....only to watch in blank disbelief as Quanxi’s legs righted themselves and she rose up, grabbing her sword and pulling it out in another spray of gore. Her shirt fell apart as she stood back up. Most bizarrely her head and arms shifted as black liquid seeped out of them and solidified in an instant. Her head was replaced by a metallic fixture with razor teeth and arrows growing out of her neck. Two horns formed a bow meant to fire the arrow heads that pointed from where her eyes should be. Her arms were a tangle of metallic roots shaped into hands, with further crossbow configurations growing out of them. Her body was totally unscathed, he thought it odd that such a legendary, experienced killer wouldn’t have any scars on her body but this explained it. Whatever she did under her eyepatch must have triggered this transformation that healed all her wounds, except for a curious bleeding scratch on her shoulder. 

Toji reacted as quickly as he could while she was still regaining her bearings and dived towards the still disintegrating worm, reaching into its mouth and pulling out its last weapon. Special Grade Cursed Tool: Playful Cloud. The red and black three section staff quickly came alive in his hands and became a windmill of destruction. He charged forward as Quanxi brought her arms and head to bear launching a first volley of arrows. The spinning staff deflected each of them as Toji closed in, getting back into close range quickly before she could perforate him from afar. The arrows were quick and if the sound they made as they hit the concrete wall behind him was any indication, extremely dangerous. 

He stepped to her left before swinging the tool, the chain clacking as one end collided with her arm as she brought it up before her face. There was a sharp vibrating noise as the string of her crossbow snapped that preluded a louder crunch as her forearm was smashed. She rolled with the force as she was sent flying, reaching for her face once again as her arm snapped back into place. Toji grimaced, he’d need to break her neck in order to prevent her regenerating again. 

Like a lightbulb, Toji realised. The reason her shoulder was still bleeding was because he’d hit it with the Inverted Spear. Whatever she did to regenerate, it didn’t prevent his trusted knife from negating it. Heh, she wouldn’t get up if he buried that in her skull. Nothing would. 

Keeping Playful Cloud spinning to deflect her arrows slowed him down somewhat, and he caught several glancing blows taking small chunks out of his sides and legs, but he managed to make it to his discarded knife from where Quanxi kicked it. This was the last stretch. 

His foot slipped underneath the blade before flipping it up into the air, Toji catching the handle between his teeth without dropping Playful Cloud. He shot forward, eyes white with bloodlust as he charged towards Quanxi one final time. Just as he was about to reach her, deflecting volley after volley of arrows all the while, he threw Playful Cloud towards her before grabbing the Inverted Spear in a reverse grip, the still spinning three-section staff being quickly countered by a kick from Quanxi that still put her off balance. Toji lunged, the Inverted Spear of Heaven careening towards her head to pierce her brain and finish their battle.

Unfortunately, it failed to reach her.

Faster than she’d moved the entire fight, Quanxi raised her metal hand towards the knife, allowing it to pierce her hand and sever her muscles. Toji wrenched the embedded knife away, only for Quanxi’s fingers to close around it, keeping it in place. Toji moved his head out of the way of hers while grabbing her other wrist to prevent being shot while he retrieved his knife, only to not notice her lifting her leg to place her foot on his chest. 

Another bow grew out of her shin, the string thrumming as an arrow cored his chest. 

His limbs weakened and let go as he stumbled back, but Quanxi, unwilling to let him go, stomped on his foot to lock his in place. She grabbed at the handle of his knife before yanking it out of her hand, the negating energy having returned it to normal, before plunging it deep into Toji’s stomach, sealing his fate.

He fell to the floor in a daze, his lifeblood seeping out of him. His last plan failed, there was no recovering from his wounds. Quanxi stood before him, the crossbow devil dissolving to reveal the same white haired woman with the same detached expression. Another job done.

‘My hand isn’t going to heal is it?’ asked Quanxi. 

What?

‘....no it will. The energy from it will negate whatever you use to heal for a while, but it’ll stop lingering.’

‘Good. That was fun. You almost got me.’ 

‘Thanks I guess.’ Toji responded, not really knowing what it was that was causing him to be more polite to her. He’d assumed he’d die spitting in the face of whoever killed him.

Quanxi reached into her pocket and pulled out a box of cigarettes, offering Toji one first. With shaky fingers he reached out to take it, cautiously waiting as she lit it. He took a long puff and exhaled through his nose, having lost the strength to even remove it from his mouth. They shared a brief moment smoking together, before Quanxi moved across the room for a long seeming period of time, returning with his gun he’d used earlier. She pointed it at his head, like an executioner.

Toji saw black, and for a split second thought of Megumi, before Quanxi put a hole in his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was definitely the hardest to write so far, hand to hand fights are an interest but not easy to write. Both these characters are so cool so I wanted to represent them well. Hope you enjoyed.


End file.
